Open Boys Knockout Football competition set to begin for 22 SA schools and colleges

NORWOOD’S Matt Hallandal is a footballer on the rise, but the on-baller says nothing beats winning matches with his Modbury High school mates.

MATT Hallandal is a footballer on the rise, impressing for Norwood’s ladder-leading under-18s and featuring twice for the Redlegs’ reserves this season.

But the 17-year-old on-baller says nothing beats winning matches with his Modbury High school mates.

“You always play club footy against a lot of these blokes from your school, so it’s a lot of fun to play with them,” Hallandal said.

“It’s one part of the year where you just really love to play a few games with your mates.”

Hallandal will captain Modbury when it launches its Open Boys Knockout Football campaign against Cardijn College and Heathfield High this week.

The competition will feature 22 public and independent schools from across the state battling for the Secondary Schools Cup.

“We’ve got a few North Adelaide players, a couple of Central (District) guys and the majority Norwood (players),” Hallandal said.

“We all work well together — just a big group of mates.

“We were knocked out first up last year, so this year hopefully we can get two wins on the board and get through to the next round.”

Reigning premier Henley High will look to claim its 13th title when it joins the competition in the third round.

Henley half-back Rhys Woods said the school, which beat Brighton Secondary in last year’s final, was looking forward to a strong campaign under new coach, Central District co-captain Paul Thomas.

“We’ve been pretty serious about our approach this year and we really want to do well,” said Woods, an Eagles under-18 player.

“The passion is there at school and all the blokes have known each other for five years so we all really click with each other.”

The cup final will be played at Woodville Oval on August 6.

The winner will play off against the top two Sports Association for Adelaide Schools sides for school footy bragging rights.

Sacred Heart took out that title last year.

“Whoever we play if we get through I reckon we can give them a bit of a shake,” Woods, 17, said.

“If we could get up an upset over one of those big colleges this year that would be huge for us.”

Round one

■ Modbury v Cardijn; Modbury v Heathfield

■ Gleeson v Adelaide; Gleeson v Golden Grove

■ SA Aboriginal Sports Training Academy v Le Fevre; LeFevre v Unley

■ Byes: Brighton, Reynella East, Marryatville, Henley