The football first’s travelled to compete in the Malcom Cowie tournament in Auckland. We knew we had a very tough pool with 3 Auckland schools, Massey, Rangitoto and Western Springs. We also had Matamata College and St Andrew's from Christchurch.

We had a very tough first day with a 1-1 draw with St Andrew's (goal from Taine Bayly) and a 5-2 loss to Rangitoto College (goals from Patrick Koppert and Cam Scott). We played some good football but couldn’t score the goals we needed despite having our share of possession. The second day saw good wins over Matamata College (Cam Scott with 5 was the highlight) and Western Springs (goals from Jake Alderson 2 and Max Chu) and really put us back into the frame for making the top 8 which was our goal for the tournament.

The game on Wednesday had everything. We needed to win but also had to keep an eye on the game beside us because we were on equal points and goals with St Andrew's. St Andrew's led 3 nil at half-time in their game and we were nil all. The second half saw us score 5 (goals from Jake Alderson 3 and Max Chu 2) and concede 1 while St Andrew's conceded 1. This meant that we were through to the quarter finals. A great effort from the boys.

We played Christchurch Boys' in the quarter final and it really was a game of two halves. They dominated possession in the first and fully deserved their lead. We took over in the second half and equalised (goal from Max Chu) with 10 to go and were dominating the game when the final whistle blew. Straight to penalties which we unfortunately lost 3-2. The boys were gutted but had to pick themselves up for a playoff game in the afternoon. Here we played Shirley Boys' and again drew the match 2-2 (both goals from Patrick Koppert) so into another penalty shootout. The boys performed better but lost 4-3. A very tough way to finish the day.

The next day we played King's College of Auckland and won 3-1 (Taine Bayly with 2 goals). It’s always nice to finish a tournament with a win. The boys could take pride in the fact that we only really lost 1 game all week and that was to the tournament winners Rangitoto College.