In appointing a coach to replace Laxton, the committee made its feelings clear:  

“The Committee of the club has always been of the opinion that the best coach for the team is an experienced Old Xaverian.  One who has played with the team, is sufficiently advanced in years to exercise the necessary discipline on the younger players and who has that understanding of the Club’s spirit, traditions and the atmosphere of Xavier generally.”

Happily for the Old Xavs, club stalwart George Cooke had recently returned to Melbourne after some years in Sydney, and took up the position, throwing himself in to the fray regardless of the inconvenience it caused him.

Cooke proved to be a success – the club won 14 of 18, and went to the finals in second position.  However, the premiership dream ended with a 6 point loss to Dandenong in the knockout semi-final.  Maurice Collins, who had led the goalkicking that year with 53, suffered a dislocated elbow before half-time – his first serious injury in nine seasons.

The locker room after the game was a depressing scene, but spirits were lifted at the Annual Dinner that evening with the cheerful singing of the school songs of Xavier and boisterous applauding of the enthusiastic speeches about chances in 1933.

Ed Hurren won the trophy for “general excellence”, Frank O’Halloran “most consistent”, Neville Lardner “best place man”, Neil Campbell the “most improved”, and “best club man” by Desmond Kennedy.

Again, social functions dotted the calendar, with the Annual Dance at St Leonard's Ballroom in St Kilda, a Smoke Night, and a Dinner for 70 at the Queen’s Bridge Hotel, donated by Mrs Cass.

Thus the club’s tenth year lived out the expectation that it would be a memorable one and closed out its first decade with the promise of greater riches ahead.

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