SPOC Soccer | Celebrating Team Spirit

At the time of reading the St Peter’s Old Collegians’ Soccer Club (SPOC SC) will likely have completed the 2025 season. It should be considered a qualified success. The greatest progress has been off-field, where a disastrous mess was remedied by some old heads, and some old-fashioned carrot and stick diplomacy. At times the cure might have been considered worse than the illness but the outcomes were there, and we had no alternative but for the end to justify the means. No amateur club, in any sport, can exist unless the basics of discipline, team spirit and a collective will to be involved in the hard work that must be done behind the scenes - rather than just arrive, play poorly, and then leave - are attended to. For the most part we have now reached a stage where a critical mass of the Club does make a good contribution in a variety of areas. As with any broad enough cross-section, there will always be the incorrigibly lazy and indulgent, who’ll deal with that for the duration of their lives, but they are on the outer now. The challenge remains to keep these standards high and to find administrators amongst the Club’s younger demographic.   

On field, results were certainly an improvement but still short of where we want to be.

The C Grade (Cs) was the success story of the year. Essentially abandoned in 2024 they were revived this year by dedicated coaching, a surge in numbers, some tough, no nonsense players in key positions and a very high morale that seemed to expand with every week. They were the most direct and physically aggressive team in the Club, ticking both of these key markers of amateur soccer. They played in a number of very exciting, open matches and, at the time of writing, still remain a chance of claiming a trophy in the inaugural C Grade knockout Cup competition.

The Reserves (Bs) were steady throughout the season. They were a predictable side, generally beating the teams they were expected to, quite often very easily, but not able to break the stranglehold of the top few sides at that level. Their final tally of points was, though, commendable.

The Seniors (As) began brightly but the second half of the season was a disappointment. In a highly fractured League – the top few teams, and the bottom few, were easily predictable from very early on – we hovered somewhere in the middle. Injuries did blight this side but the same errors as we have made for a number of years now, mostly in regard to tactical philosophy and selection, held us back from real progress. Until this team embraces pace and youth, and moves its core group of older players on, perhaps to a new Over 35s team that we plan to have in 2026, we will remain making up the numbers at this level.

In summary we are well placed moving forward. Our numbers are good and there are plenty of promising young players coming through. Our relationship with the school remains effective and cordial and we thank all school staff for their prompt support of our requests throughout the 2025 season. All players coming from the school at the end of this year are welcome, and indeed encouraged, to come and join us for the 2026 pre-season and contend for a place at the Club. We do have some non-Old Scholars at the school but their numbers are restricted, and any Saints alumni, regardless of their ability and motivation, but assuming they are keen to play soccer for us and do their best over a long season, are encouraged to join. The Club Constitution guarantees  game time to all old scholars who are, each week, available to play, financial to the Club, and attending training at least once a week. We are confident about our chances for next season and look forward, especially, to all new Old Scholars who wish to join or those who may have left school some time ago, perhaps drifted away from the game but who are now keen to resume playing.

For further information please contact the Secretary, Chris Roe (MAC 1980) on 0431 381 513.