Well, Wellington sure does know how to turn the ‘wind notch’ up, and that certainly happened for the boy’s tournament last Monday 11th April.

The boys played fantastically, working together as a team, putting all that hard work at practices into reality and with Henry Naish as our captain controlling things from the backline. Despite the wind, they managed to string some great passes together to score some stunning goals throughout the day.

We played Avalon Intermediate first up, comfortably beating them 4-0 with Leo Allen scoring a stunner off his left foot and setting the standard for games to come. Our second match against Titahi Bay provided more chances for the boys to work on their passing game, setting each other up for a 6-0 win. With an hour and a half break in between our second and third game gave the team a good chance to rest up and strategise for the next match against Fergusson Intermediate. Once again, the boys played really well to come away with a 5-0 win. Maidstone Intermediate was our fourth game and from seeing them play earlier, they seemed to be an aggressive team, hungry for the ball with the fitness to back it up. Certainly our first tough competition, the boys tried their best unfortunately going down 1-0. In the end this didn’t affect us going through to the semi-finals due to such comfortable wins with the first three games.

We met South Wellington Intermediate (SWIS) in the semi-final. The team really stepped it up a notch after their loss to Maidstone, working against the increasing wind and playing together well to secure a spot in the final with a 2-0 win.

We met Tawa Intermediate in the final who had outplayed all their other opponents throughout the day. Raroa put in a solid effort despite the exhaustion of already having played 5 games and constantly battling that wind. The boys put everything they had into the final, but unfortunately went down 2-0. Both teams played some magic football, however Tawa were the better team on the day.

Despite losing the final, it was a great day with some amazing football skills displayed from all teams involved. And we can’t forget some of that Raroa magic… In particular, goal of the day would have to go to Hiroshi Craigie in our semi-final – taking control of the ball just in from half way, showing amazing control and skilful footwork to get through at least eight of the SWIS playeys and get into space to slot a perfectly placed shot in the top right corner. Magic stuff!!!

Player of the tournament went to Nick Fisher for his constant cool head, great control and often getting out of tight situations to make some great passes putting our boys into space. Well done Nick.

And a special mention needs to go out to Joseph Alexander for stepping up at the last minute to come in as goalkeeper for the day after our regular keeper Nick Martin unfortunately breaking his leg and an injury to Luke Chowdhury’s back putting him out of playing in the keeper position. He proved to be an invaluable member of the team, making some fantastic saves throughout the day. Thanks very much Joseph.

I am super proud of the entire team. They put in a huge effort to make it as far as they did and all the hard work put in during those early morning trainings really paid off. I totally enjoyed the day and have thoroughly enjoyed coaching them all. I am looking forward to setting up against Tawa again in our exchange next term.

Raroa Boys Football Team 2016:

Henry Naish (captain), Paddy Martin, Luke Chowdhury, Nick Fisher, Dillon Huddleston, Leo Allen, Jayden Gildchrist, Danny Sneyd-Utting, Aaron Keegan, Ashnarvy Mustapha, Ben O’Donnell, Luca Adams, Mateja Brasic, Hiroshi Craigie, Jeremy Chan.

Goal scorers:

Raroa vs Avalon: Hiroshi (2), Leo (2)

Raroa vs Titahi Bay: Luca, Mateja, Aaron, Ben, Paddy, Ashanarvy

Raroa vs Fergusson: Leo, Hiroshi, Jayden(2), Mateja

Raroa vs SWIS (semi-final): Hiroshi – GOAL OF THE DAY