Winter Tournament week ran from 3-7 September. A young team with 11 national tournament debutantes headed to Napier for the Rex Dawkins Cup.

A 4-3 first up loss was not a good start, but was followed by a 4-2 win over Hillcrest High School.

Tuesday morning produced a 2-2 draw in a high quality game with Hutt Valley High School. Tueaday afternoon was a must win or at the very least a must not lose game against Northcote. In a game where we played good football in possession we got punished by a strong physical team who capitalised on mistakes to record a second loss.

With that went the chance of qualifying for the quarter finals. The final group game was a 6-0 win against Onehunga High School.

By this stage the weather was seriously impacting the fields and we could only get in one more game against Gisborne Boys where a well deserved win was recorded. The following players contributed goals during the week. Seven players out of 16 scored which reflects the importance of a strong squad.

• Mohammed Mohebbie 5
• Dean Phommahaxay 4
• Luka Vlasic 2
• Leo Brodersen 2
• Dylan McDonald 1
• Bhabjot Singh 1
• Ryan Frost 1

Players of the tournament were Luke Hewitt and Mitchell Callaghan.

The positives are that the boys learned a lot during the week and could reflect on the mistakes that cost a quarter final spot.

Returning with a 4 win, 2 loss and 1 draw record with such a young group was a great sign of things to come for the team.