Football Champions
By Mike McGarry | Posted: Tuesday July 24, 2018
The team of 15 boys and 4 staff departed from Dunedin on Thursday 5th July for the Kanga Cup tournament in Canberra Australia.
We stopped off in Sydney for a couple of days and played a warm up game against Asquith Boys' who had visited us the previous year. They billeted the boys for 2 nights and were great hosts. The game was tough as the team were older boys but despite taking an early lead we succumbed 2-1 in the end. All boys got the cobwebs out in the warm Sydney weather.
We drove to Canberra and settled into our camping ground accommodation. The cabins were warm and over the next 7 nights the boys got to know each others eating and sleeping habits pretty well.
We started the first game on Monday morning at 8.30am with the frost still on the ground. Sydney University were a tough opponent and we would meet them again in the final and we were good enough to take a 2-1 win. Goals from Finn and Ben. I think this surprised a lot of teams as Sydney were hot favourites to take the title. Our next opponents were also Sydney based, Far South Coast Coasties which we beat comfortably 4-0 with goals from Finn, Jak, Symon and Olly.
Tuesday saw a later start and Mosman setting up very defensively. We struggled to break them down but Angus scored from a cross and we won 1-0. We had a comfortable win in the afternoon game against Warilla with goals from Ollie, Ben, George, Will, Josh, Yunny and Liam.
Wednesday saw just the one game against Balmain from Sydney. Another comfortable win with goals from George, Ben, Jamie, Finn and Ollie.
On Thursday we had our final pool game against Gippsland from Brisbane winning 5-0 with goals from Angus, Will, Jack, Ben and Finn. The afternoon saw our semi-final against Altona City from Melbourne. We started really well with goals to Finn, Yunny and Josh in the first half and Finn completed the scoring in probably our best game of the tournament.
The final was played on Friday at 8.30am against Sydney. The pitch was still frozen and this effected the quality of the game. Sydney were out to prove a point and the game ebbed and flowed until Finn scored just before the break. The second half was very even but we managed to hold on for a 1-0 victory. The boys celebrated a great win.
My thanks go to the boys’ for their efforts on and off the field and the support of Mr Willmott, Mr Sharp and Mrs McGarry who made sure the boys were well feed and looked after.
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