Week 5 has been an extremely busy one for our Cardijn Footballers. Our Open A side have played three matches. The first match was away in our regular Wednesday night competition against Nazareth. The boys managed to secure a hard fought 6 point win, which was particularly impressive given that we rested a number of our key players in preparation for Knockout football. Mitch Jarrett was a rock in defence and Sebastian Oliver provided us with a clear focal point up forward.
On Thursday we entered the Open Knockout competition against Blackwood and Henley, two highly credentialed football schools. Our first match against Blackwood was disappointing, we struggled to implement our game plan the way we would’ve liked and Blackwood ran away with a five goal win. The second game against Henley High was a major challenge for our boys, given that Henley are widely considered one of, if not the best, football school in South Australia. Our boys showed great determination to match it with Henley throughout the game, even closing to within 15 points in the third quarter, before eventually falling by 27 points. Arlo Draper was a standout contributor throughout the day and showed his true class by performing to such a high level against quality opposition. Declan Le Raye and Cameron Kirkland also had some impressive moments throughout the day, and Kyle Marshall battled hard in the ruck.
Whilst the Open Knockout competition is over for us, this was a magnificent opportunity for our students to take on some of the state’s best Under 18 talent.
Cardijn College 20.12 (134) def. Unley High School 0.2 (2)
We gathered at home to take on Unley High School in a gloomy and rainy afternoon of football. The Opens team have the Knockout Competition at Henley the next day, so the team was filled with plenty of fresh faces, eager to see what Cardijn Football is all about. Unley arrived and required several players to play on their team for the game to go ahead. With great love and passion for the game, the boys did not complain about playing for the opposing team and did so with gusto. As a coach, this made me extremely proud. They took it as an opportunity and a challenge to showcase their skills against their mates and did so with the utmost respect to their opposition.
The weather was gloomy, yet the boys played in extremely high spirits, running out comfortable victors by a substantial margin. Across the board, nearly every player registered a goal in a great display of team-first football. Key contributors were Isaac Churchill who starred throughout the game, winning the ball all over the ground. Marcellin Campus student Max Coombes had his best game of Cardijn football with his hard grunt work. Jake Drury starred in all positions on the ground, showing his skill and all-round flexibility. Fresh face Harry Smith showed some exciting passages of football. A special thank you to Edward Carrol who played the entire game for Unley High School after not planning to line up and play at all.
The boys need to keep stringing together the wins to maintain ascendency atop the ladder. We take on Pulteney Grammar at Home next Wednesday 26th at 3:45pm in what is set up to be our most important game of the season to date.
