It was a third Challenger Cup final in as many seasons for Grilled Birds, and they made history by being the first local club to win four of the same, in capturing the Sapphire Challenger Cup against Farmer Bunnies in a non-event. Vishnu Tallapaka's heroes might have navigated their way past Queenstown MZKs in the semifinals thanks to Dušan Václavík, but there would only be pain awaiting them at the Ballota, where Hwang Teck Fu forced a goal past Gilberto Rosano after barely four minutes. There would be no respite with Arturo Rosano fluffing a penalty for the Buns just before half-time, although it would probably not have mattered either way.

It was a whole different story in the league with the Birds getting off to one of their slowest starts in years, winning just one of their first six fixtures - a home 6-2 against Four Leaf Pandas. West Merlions in particular would humble the Birds 4-0 at home before forcing them out of the Singapore Cup, which had Dan Alstani's position look insecure for a time. The 2-5 loss to frunzelax in the sixth matchday turned out to be their wakeup call, with Grilled then winning ten of their next eleven competitive games, the only exception being a 2-3 home loss to newbies are newbies.

That saved Alstani's job, with the new head coach vindicated in his policy of maintaining Tian Yonghang's system. He would take his time to dip into the transfer market too, with former national youth winger Wu Ping De his only major purchase of the season, just in time for the cup final. It was otherwise a relatively humdrum campaign with Lim An Keng and Mohd Marzuki Khairul both having quite obvious trouble in maintaining form, which had Ananda Hettiarachchi step up to be counted in midfield. The limelight would belong to Chad Thach and Hwang Teck Fu however, with the duo capturing Golden Boots in the league and Sapphire Challenger Cup respectively.

The Buns wound up between nowhere and a vacuous dream, after the Birds had ruined perhaps the best chance for this generation of players to claim some silverware. Their reduced squad did remain more than enough for them to breeze through Division Three, but a single defeat to Marine Parade Kings was enough to keep them in III.4. The supporters would rightly accuse the team of going through the motions, but Tallapaka would at least have the excuse of having his hands tied with regards to reforming the squad. Edwin Bolton and Boyd Nguyen provided a rare breeze of fresh air, but the Buns would more often than not meander through ninety minutes while taking the win on a dead ball.

This was arguably still superior to Grilled International's situation, however, as the Brunei club struggled mightily in IV.42 despite Sazwan bin Hj Muhd Salleh's bold proclamations of challenging for the title in pre-season. Robophobia made light of their ambitions with four-goal thrashings in each of their meetings, with International also losing matches to FC Sunny Tummy, JUV3-4-3V3R and Chunjos F.C.; the decline of a now 37 year-old Chua Jun Long had much to do with that, with the team very often lacking direction when the chips were down.

Academy lad Nabil bin Mohd Zulkhairi did spark some interest from the home support in being the first trainee to make the leap to the senior squad in some time, but he would have his own issues to work through, and would miss nearly a month of football. There would be no consolation of a long cup run either as they were turfed out of the main competition in the third round 0-4 by Belgium's Dirkies Team, before slipping up to Iran's Yazdabadan just two games into the H.I. Sapphire Challenger Cup.