Gisborne Boys’ High out of Eastern Premiership, won’t play last three games

Gisborne Boys' High First XI had their most successful Super 8 football tournament since 2017, placing sixth overall. Front row (from left) are Jacob Adams, Euan Cramer, Gavin Derr, Mako Fukushima-Hall, Aiden Armstrong, Korbin Wigglesworth and assistant coach/manager Darren Larkins. Back row: director of football/head coach Sebastian Itman, Kyran Lasenby, Xavier Priestley-Mennie, Connor Evison, Anton Larkins, Matt Hills, Leroy Hill, Nathaniel Fearnley, Oliver McManaway, Kauri Holmes and Jonah Whitley.

A transfer deadline exodus has proved the tipping point for Gisborne Boys’ High School’s foray into outside football.

The team, playing under the High School Old Boys-GBHS banner, will not contest the last three games of their Eastern Premiership programme.

Central Football federation operations manager Donald Piper contacted Boys’ High head of football Sebastian Itman on Tuesday to talk through the situation.

Boys’ High had defaulted a third of their games, five out of 15, as they endured a series of injuries to key players and some heavy defeats.

HSOB-Boys’ High entered the 10-team league to gain regular tough competition and help them better prepare for inter-school games against players already exposed to that level of football.

By one measure, the strategy worked. In the Super 8 competition at Rotorua last month, Gisborne Boys’ High had two wins from five games to finish sixth overall – their best finish since 2017.

They beat Rotorua Boys’ High 3-2 and, in post-pool play, beat Napier Boys’ High School 3-0 – their first win against Napier in the Super 8 era.

But the writing was on the wall when Piper rang Itman. The five defaults came in a span of seven fixtures.

Piper said the teams scheduled to play Boys’ High from now till the end of the season would be credited with 3-0 wins.

This weekend’s scheduled game between Boys’ High and Maycenvale has already been listed on the Central Football website as a win for the Hawke’s Bay side.

“Gisborne Boys’ High entered with good intentions,” Piper said. “The difficulty we have is that at the premiership level it is an aspirational league.

“When I spoke to Sebastian it was about ensuring the players still had somewhere to play, but I think we also have to consider all the clubs in the premiership and that is why this move was taken.

“They have 20 players across two squads. We had to consider both the integrity of the premiership and the need for the remaining [Boys’ High] players to have somewhere to play.”

Itman said three players had transferred to Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United and four to Electrinet Thistle just before the transfer deadline at the end of June.

United and Thistle sit fifth and sixth respectively in the Hawke’s Bay-dominated premiership. The prospect of a third Gisborne team in the league – and the reduced travel burden as a result – was a factor in United’s decision to re-enter the competition that used to be known as the Pacific Premiership.

Itman said the remaining First XI players would join those from the school’s reserve team in the Tairāwhiti Men’s Championship.

A run of injuries to key First XI players had meant that replacements were drawn from the reserves, who in turn relied on prefects, hockey players and “whoever was keen to turn up to help” to keep the team playing.

“Now I have a new First XI playing in the Tairāwhiti Men’s Championship, the top local division,” Itman said.

He and assistant coach Darren Larkins had taken over the reins from Garrett Blair, whose job had made it difficult for him to attend practice, and they were looking forward to the continued development of the side.

Boys’ High will compete in the Trident secondary school tournament in Wellington in the last week of August and will use local league games to build combinations.

They play Thistle Athletic Bobcats at the Boys’ High back field at 12.30pm on Saturday.

In the Eastern Premiership, Thistle play Western Rangers on Childers Road Reserve No 1 at 12.30pm, and Gisborne United play Napier Marist on the Bond Field at Park Island, Napier, at 3pm.

Rangers and Marist lie eighth and ninth respectively.