Not quite the old cadets but we had a visit to the College today from the NZ Army - purely for promotional purposes of course. The armoured vehicle generated a great amount of interest among students and a few staff were also noted to be quite intrigued. Behaviour in the main quad at lunch was greatly improved.

There is about to be a new view at FDMC. The next few weeks should see ground broken to begin the building of new science labs in front of the main classroom block at the College. The covered area now used by the Y7/8 students is to be shifted back towards the fields to allow space for the new construction. There is to also be a purpose built Art Room added to the Technology block which will be built at the same time.

We will keep you posted on progress with the odd photo over the coming months. 

Great article in today's Daily News (click here) on the three Fidow brothers at FDMC - Feterika, Enele and Jonathan. It is a very timely article as the boys were a central part in the 1st XIII winning of the Willie Talau Cup yesterday afternoon. Enele, who is the 1st XIII captain, wasnot able to play because of injury, but it did not stop our guys going on to win by a very comfortable score of 62 to 0. 

We often post photos from the archives of both staff and students but the hostel staff don't tend to get too much coverage. To help redress the balance we offer this group shot of three likely lads from the 2000's. Mark Walsh (left) is still on the staff while Paul Cleary (middle) and Tony Gray (right) have gone on to dazzle in other walks of life.

Tomorrow afternoon at 4 o'clock the College 1st XIII will take on the might of Hawera HS for the Willie Talau Cup and league supremacy in Taranaki. All supporters welcome!

We had a visit from old boy Simon Gillum yesterday. Simon reminded us that it has been exactly 15 years since the first FDMC win over NPBHS on the Gully ground. Simon has also been able to provide a youTube video of the event for any one who wants to relive past glories. We understand there were some commemorative celebrations last night but we suspect the winning halfback was not in attendance.

Losing the last game of the season is never fun but there are some team protocols that just have to be enforced. Pictured are Luke Dravitzki and Brendan Dent completing their "undie run" having failed to score once in the entire season. Both players are back next year and we can expect them to get their hands on the ball close to the line as often as possible!

Tomorrow sees the last act of the 2014 1st XV campaign. The Central North Island Final kicks off at mid day at the St Paul's ground in Hamilton and we would love to see as many old boys as possible in attendance. The weather is set fair, the team are over most of their sickness and are raring to go, now all we need is to play the game.

For those who can't be there we assume The Panel at FDMC Greatest Sporting Moments will be providing up dates on Facebook.

An interesting aside has been the support the College has had from the Chiefs. Dave Rennie and co attended our last practice, will be at tomorrow's game, and have offered the Chiefs facilities to the team to use pre match. We doubt if the Hurricanes could even find the College on a map.    

We received the following message from Auckland based old boy Bill Killkoy yesterday and we include it for your consideration. Bill can be contacted here.