Football Boys and Girls

SYDNEY WEST SOCCER 2024

The next two matches were both 2-0 defeats from Blue Mountains and Castle Hill, two very strong outfits who were well-trained and clinical in their attacking. Our fourth match was played against Hawkesbury, another very talented squad. Our girls held them off to a 0-0 draw and showed strong determination to bounce back positively after a couple of defeats. Our final match was against Mount Druitt, which the girls went down 4-0 – a game that was reflective of both our general fatigue and the overall high quality football of the day.

Our team consisted of many football-playing students, but also a large contingent of girls who had not played club-level football. When considering the intensity of this championship, the girls should be commended for the way in which they conducted themselves and played football. The girls, each coming from different schools, instantly became a team once that first whistle blew. They remained positive the entire time and represented St Mary’s with pride. Well done, girls.

Our championships began with a historically typical result, drawing 0-0 with Blue Mountains. In a hyper-competitive space like this, early wins are absolutely crucial, but it took us a little bit of time to warm up to our environment. Our second game was to be played against Mount Druitt. Our boys went down 1-0 towards the end of the game but showed a great reaction to level the score one minute later through Bentley (Banks PS). The game would finish at 1-1.

Our third and fourth opponents, Hawkesbury and Penrith, were undoubtedly the toughest of the pool. Our third game resulted in a 0-0 draw against Hawkesbury, with some gutsy defending from Pranav (Colyton PS), Hunter (James Erskine PS) and Ramsey (James Erskine PS). The fourth game ended in a 2-1 win to Penrith, a match in which most spectators would agree was both our best team performance and also one of the best individual clashes on the day. Some high-quality attacking from Penrith opened us up but the boys showed fantastic resilience to level the match through Jayden (Blackwell PS), but only to concede again towards the end. Tough result, but a great game.

Our final match was against Auburn, another low-scoring team, but who was coming off a strong win against Blue Mountains. Since finals were out of the equation, positions were changed, and we played with a high amount of flexibility. The boys walked off with a 1-0 win through Ryan (Banks PS) as the goal scorer and some brilliant build up and connective play from Mading (Ropes Crossing PS).

This final score was a suitable reflection of the day for us; we had goals in us and we showed that we not only could contest with the best, but gave all of the teams a run for their money. The boys conducted themselves professionally throughout the entire championship and should be proud of their efforts.

An additional congratulations for Hunter (James Erskine PS) and Ryan (Banks PS) for being invited back tomorrow to the final trials for the Sydney West Boys Football team.

Great work, boys!