Senior Development Football Team 2022
For the first time, this team was made up of both Year 11 and Year 12 players. After the grading games, we were ranked first and placed in the Senior Boys’ Division Two. Despite coming up against other schools’ 1st XI teams, we remained unbeaten. Our hardest match was against HBHS Senior Grey who were our closest rivals. Despite them leading 1-0 at halftime, we dug deep and eventually won 3-2. This cemented our place as undefeated winners of the Waikato Secondary Schools Division 2 Competition. The Knockout Cup competition also ran throughout the season. Again, it came down to us versus Senior Grey. Unfortunately for us, the Year 13s were driven by revenge and played with intensity and focus. They deserved to win and we had to settle for second place.
The highlight of our season was going to the Trident Tournament (for second tier 1st XI teams), in Whanganui during Winter Tournament Week. It was the first year that the Senior Development Team had been granted entry so we were an ‘unknown’ opponent and were ranked in the 9-16 bracket going in. The first game was against John Paul and we fought hard for a 0-0 draw. On Tuesday we played the second ranked team, Onslow College. Again, it was tough but we came away with a 1-1 draw. In the afternoon we played St Paul's Hastings. This time, we were settled, had grown in confidence and won 3-1. Luke Randall-Jones scored a beautiful, long-range goal from 30m! We only had one game on Wednesday and it was against the lowest-ranked team in our pool - Wainuiomata. We took the opportunity to rest our stronger players but still won comfortably 5-0.
Quarterfinals time. The officials re-ranked the teams but still didn’t rate us and ranked us 8th, meaning we had to play the top ranked team first - Rutherford. They were huge! And had beards! And two looked older than Mr Salsano!! Nevertheless, we had nothing to lose so played our hearts out. Full time ended at 0-0, so it went to a penalty shootout. Sam Gordon held his nerve as keeper and managed to save a vital goal, while our strikers hit the back of the net one more time than Rutherford, so we won 4-3 on penalties.
There was a quick turnaround for the semi-final in the afternoon. We were up against Havelock North. Unfortunately, we struggled to lift again. We did score a goal - sadly it was into our own net while on defence, so the game ended on 1-0. We licked our wounds and aimed for third on Friday morning. The game was going our way against St Patrick's College and we looked to have secured a win after Liam Weston’s breakaway goal to put us 3-1 up. Unfortunately, we celebrated too early and St Patrick’s scored 2 goals in the final 3 minutes to snatch a 3-3 draw and we were off to penalties once more. Sam Gordon was strong again, but we faltered twice on our turn, and the game finished 4-3 on penalties.
We were initially disappointed, but after reflecting on the week, we were proud of our efforts. We have learnt a lot about tournament play and playing against stronger, larger oppositions. Next year’s team will definitely be ranked higher!
Special thanks to Mr Salsano, our coach for the season. He was always super organised, enthusiastic and wanted us to play our best. We also thank Alice Cornforth who was our manager, physio, and team Mum while we were away.