On Saturday, we hosted the final home fixture of the season, with all 13 teams competing at the Park against Riverview and St Patrick’s.
The 2nd XI match was a thrilling spectacle, with both teams displaying great attacking intent early on. Unfortunately, a stroke of bad luck saw Riverview take the lead through an unlucky deflection from a cross. Despite this setback, the Joe-boys showed resilience and played exhilarating football throughout the first half. Although the match ended in a 1-1 draw, the 2nd XI continues to impress this term, and they were unfortunate not to secure all three points on the day.
The 1st XI match was set up to be a momentous occasion. Joeys came into the day leading the competition table by three points, but facing a Riverview team who was the only GPS team to defeat them this season in Round 1 of the Plate Competition. In Parramatta, the two teams in second place – King’s and Scots – faced off in another tense battle. A win to Joeys would guarantee a shared of the premiership, but a draw or loss would have opened the competition right up.
The match certainly didn’t fail to meet expectations; it was thrilling from the first kick of the game to the last. Both teams showed attacking prowess throughout the first half, with plenty of shots on goal manufactured at both ends and a dipping free kick from captain Nicholas Burnett missing the goal by the narrowest of margins. Soon after, Oliver Burnett navigated his way past three defenders in the penalty box and placed the ball in the top right corner of the goal to take the lead.
A few early misses in the second half didn’t dent the home-team’s confidence. Rather, they were buoyed by the attacking football they were creating and the energy from the crowd. The Joe-boys were in full flight, and “ooh’s” and “aah’s” from the crowd could be heard throughout the remainder of the match – most audible when Oliver tried an audacious ‘rainbow-flick’, which sailed over his marker’s head and led to a cross which was blocked by an outstanding goal line clearance from the Riverview captain. Conor Hayden (Y11) soon found the back of the net from a cross, followed not long after by an outstanding Sonny Matchett volley which secured the win.
When the match finished, the team eagerly gathered around the phone of team manager Hugo Esson (Y11) to watch the final minutes of the King’s v Scots game. Their 1-1 draw meant that the 1st XI had become Premiers-elect with one week to go, in an uncannily similar scenario to Round 6 last year. The boys and the College should rightly be proud of this outstanding achievement, achieving a feat that no other Joeys team has done in securing the Premiership two years in a row. However, the job is not yet over and this Saturday, the 1st XI are hoping to finish the season undefeated against a very strong King’s opposition away. We welcome all support for the boys in their 10:30am fixture at TKS Wanderer’s field as our boys look to put the cherry on top of an historic season.
