The Wagga Hunt Memorial Football Classic — played between arch-rivals Kingston College (KC) and Calabar High School — returned on Saturday after a two-year break, with the reigning Manning Cup champions KC running out as fairly comfortable 3-1 winners at Red Hills Road.

And while it was a good result for the champions, Head Coach Raymond Watson is not getting ahead of himself with just under three weeks to go to the start of the new campaign.

It was a come-from-behind win for KC who conceded what could only be described as a sloppy goal early on when Isaac Clarke beat goalkeeper Omari Grant with a free kick at his near post. Watson said that he will keep the faith in his custodian, despite the error.

“When we went down (0-1), I just smiled, looked at the goalkeeper, and said, ‘Hey, I got you’, because I know it was a little mistake from him, but I am confident in him,” he said.

As for the ease of the victory, Watson is cautious instead of excited.

“I won’t read much into it because I think Andrew Price may have had an ace or two, or a jack somewhere that he didn’t produce today, so I am also wary of that.”

What was most pleasing for the KC coach was the intensity of the game as his team gets more pre-season friendlies before the new campaign approaches.

“I am very happy and especially for today. It was a really intense game.”

Calabar Head Coach Andrew Price was also not reading too much into the result despite his team letting the early advantage slip.

“It’s early season; not much to read into. It’s a good opportunity for the teams to prepare for the season.

“We got an opportunity to look on a couple players and a couple formations and a couple different shapes, so it was a good opportunity. The result wasn’t too important,” he said.

Price was very respectful of the team that he will face at least twice during the upcoming season.

“They are one of the teams in our zone and, as you know, they are the defending champions. We definitely will see them a couple times, both here and down at Kingston College, so we are just going to continue doing the work and hope we get better, so that when we see them again, we will be up to the task,” he reasoned.

Price is in his first season as a schoolboy football coach, having coached at the senior level of football for all of his coaching career, but the former Manning Cup winner says that he will need and has been given time to make positive things happen in his new job.

“The understanding is that we have to be very realistic. We are trying to build back a programme here at Calabar. Calabar is better known for track and field than football, but we want to build back a football programme and build back a football philosophy and that is going to take a long time.

“That is why I asked them that if I was going to take on the job, I would have to take it for three years because I want a long-term programme to work with,” he explained.

As for the players he has in his charge, Price believes that he has enough quality to create the base he desires.

“I think we have some good players. A lot of the players have matriculated from the Colts (Under-16) level. We have some good players, and we are going to continue to work with what we have here and see if we can get the best out of the players as the season progresses,” he concluded.

The new schoolboy football season starts on September 10.

— Dwayne Richards