Specialised Football

New program kicks off 

It was an exciting start to Term 2 with our Specialised Football Program students receiving their new Canons Nike kits and St Norbert College entering an Intermediate Boys team into the School Sport WA (SSWA) Champion School competition. 

Our Senior Boys and Girls are preparing to compete in ACC competitions and with more carnivals coming up later in the year, our students have displayed a high level of commitment and are constantly improving. 

In Term 1, the Specialised Football Program focussed on the fundamentals of the game and we are now moving into analysing attacking and defensive styles of play. Later in the year our Year 9 and 10 Specialised students will partake in a Football West-run referee course - another great opportunity to learn more about the rules of the game. 

Applications for the 2023 program are now open - you'll find them on the College website. 

Champion School Competition: SNC vs Lynwood 

Our Intermediate Boys were placed in a difficult group in the SSWA competition, but it is one we are excited for. Our first group game, played on Monday,  9 May, was against Lynwood A, a school with an established football program, so we knew this was going to be a challenge. 

Our team was under the pump from the first whistle, but once we were able to settle and regain our composure we started playing football the way we want to play. We limited them to shots outside the 18-yard box for most of the first half. 

Some great link up play from Jake Ieraci in the midfield found Lennon Matthews-Goobie who cut in from the right but curled wide. Our defence was holding up well with Amal Suresh and Raphael Mahony stifling their attack. Unfortunately, before the break we conceded a penalty which they converted and took a 1-0 lead into half time. We made a few tactical adjustments and started the second half on the front foot. 

The combination of Oscar Seroney and Stirling Hatton were causing them problems and we won a free kick around five minutes into the half. Raphael took the free kick and their keeper fumbled only for Josh Navarro to tap in and level the game. We were awarded another free kick, this time Raphael was able to lob the keeper and give us a 2-1 lead. 

The confidence in the group was growing and we had thought we had taken a 3-1 lead only for the offside flag to be raised after ball went into the back of the net. Our discipline ultimately let us down and we were down to 10 men after a red card was shown. Mitch Keeley was in fine form coming off his line time after time to clear the lines. Lynwood managed to equalise from a corner and shortly after that took a 3-2 lead. 

We fell just short but the future is bright for SNC and we get ready for our next test against John Curtin in Week 5.

Year 7 ACC Super Series Football 

On Monday 14 Year 7 students represented SNC at Kingsway Reserve in the Stan Lazaridis Shield. Wearing our brand new Canons Nike kit, our team certainly looked the part. Our first game was against Salvado and our team was victorious 5-0. The game was played in the right spirit and I was extremely happy with the team considering this was their first game together. 

The team had its hopes set high, but were soon brought back to reality when we lost to Kingsway CC 6-0. The team kept working until the final whistle but Kingsway were ultimately too good. In our final group game, against Corpus Christi, was one in which we could prevent them from winning the group. We quickly went 2-0 down but the team showed the same spirit they have displayed all morning and came back to 2-2 at half time. The score was 4-2 down in the end. We had one more consolation game against Kings College and won 4-2.

Overall the team can be extremely proud of their efforts as we improved as the day went on.

Mr J Aquino

(Specialised Football Co-ordinator)