By Matthew Restall
On Saturday the 13th of May, four great powerhouses of priestly formation came together to compete in what history call’s the Brotherhood Cup.
Contested every year, the great giants of the Salesians, Yarra Theological College, the Missionaries of God’s Love (off the field), and the notorious Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ) came together in a spirit of competitiveness, under the guise of “Brotherhood” to show the Church of Melbourne who’s Boss.
Leading the charge for our Seminary was captain Andrew Kwiatkowski. If a name like that doesn’t alarm you, his steadfastness in battle certainly would. Captain Kwiatkowski trained the men like he would a regiment of the Polish army, leading us in regular training sessions, conducting drills, one of which was affectionately known as ‘suicides’. Toughness is what captain Kwiatkowski brought to the team and toughness is what the team brought to the Brotherhood Cup.
When the day came for battle, Corpus Christi performed valiantly. The first game against the MGL’s was considered by the team to be a late breakfast, starting at 10:40am our injured captain scored our first for the day. The Stars of this game were Simeon Anthony, Confidence Masvosva and Chathura Silva, playing in a midfield capacity with precision and tenacity that couldn’t be matched. The result was a 1- 0 victory, a score which may have been three times that if we’d had another 10 minutes.
Game two for Kwiatkowski’s Army was against YTU and the various mercenaries they managed to bring along to play for them on the day. This game was a rough one. Up against professionals, we sustained some pretty serious injuries. Confidence scored a beauty, however shortly after he and Toan both had to come off before half time due to injuries. Chathura too was injured in the game and missed out on the remainder of the tournament. Olek Stirrat, Anthony Beltrame and Nathan Rawlins shone with excellence maintaining good possession of the ball. The result was 1 – 1, a score which was deserving for both sides.
The finale was against the hosts of the day, the Salesians. Having trained against them in a few friendly games weeks prior we knew from the onset that this’d be tough. The first half was a real slog, ending with neither team scoring. We came into second half as determined and resolute as we began the day, however we did have a few setbacks. Having two key midfielders on the bench for this game due to injuries, bringing the ball from defence to offence wasn’t common. Tom Christie our goalkeeper was a trooper – having given a taste of his ability in the previous matches, Tom made the defeat no worse than 1 – 0.
Brotherhood Cup 2017 will go down in history as the prequel to Corpus Christi’s victory in 2018.
