The season's summary from team captain Ben Worrall.

As the captain of the 2024 Burnside Boys Football First Xi, I am incredibly proud to reflect on what has been a great season for the team. Over 50+ people turned up to the trial at the start of the year, meaning it was very evident that there was going to be tough competition to get into the final 20-man squad. Initially, we set out with one main goal and that was to reach the top 8 stage of the competition.

The season was full of memorable moments on and off the field. Two of our standout performances in the second half of the season came during our 6-l victory against Hillmorton, whom we had lost to last year in a knockout game and 5-0 win against Middleton Grange. These performances came from a managerial masterclass from Mr Hall and Musse Tengenge. This is now referred to as “Prime Musse Ball”

Despite the unforgettable moments, there were a few forgettable moments that helped shape our team. We fell short of our goal after a run of close results that saw us miss out on our top 8 hopes. We quickly re-evaluated what we wanted to gain from the season and switched our focus to the championship. Through this, we scored 21 goals in five games meaning we topped the championship and advanced through to the semi-final playoff.

The structure of the playoff was new to everyone and it turned out we would be playing St Andrews. We breezed past St Andrews winning 3-1 and moved into the Semi-Final and to our surprise we were playing St Andrews (we are still not sure how). This was not a problem for us as we beat them 2-0 after a strong team performance. The final was held at Foster Park vs Rolleston College. We went 3-0 up in 50 minutes thanks to some amazing assists from Neo, Hugo and Ryan and 3 “Tap In’s” from myself. Rolleston managed to claw two goals back but it wasn’t enough and we finished the game winning 3-2. This was everyone's highlight of the season and was a great send-off for us as year 13’s.

The end-of-year tournament approached faster than we expected and with the momentum from our success in the championship, we felt confident. We advanced through the group stage but faced the eventual winners, Boys High, in the round of 16. It was by far the toughest match of the tournament, and despite our best efforts, we lost 2-0. Although we were disappointed, we didn’t let it dampen our spirits. In the 7th-8th place playoff, we narrowly missed out and finished 8th overall.

None of this season would have been possible without the incredible support we received. First and foremost thanks to our coaches, Head Coach John Perkinson and Assistant Musse Tengenge always committed and kept spirits up. A big thanks to Mr Hall for working behind the scenes organizing our tournament and keeping the team running smoothly.

I also would like to acknowledge everyone in the team. The energy and determination to work for each other this year have been amazing, and were a key reason for our success.

Finally, I would like to thank the students and parents who came out to support us this year. We greatly appreciated it and the loud megaphone and cheering on the cold, wet and windy nights helped us get some tough games over the line. Special thanks to Dan Mackay for watching every minute of our campaign and for providing constant updates on every game through the Fist XI Instagram account.