The Under 14 Australia Post Country Championships were held
over the Queens Birthday Long Weekend in Bundaberg with the Paul Archer and the
Good Guys AFL Capricornia Under 14 Squad competing. The competition saw four
very competitive sides square off in the attempt to be named champions of the
South Queensland Division.
The Capricornia boys travelled by bus on Friday the 5th
June leaving Rockhampton with Coach Glen Durbridge and Development Staff Tim
Mackrill and Ryan Spellman taking reigns. The Port Curtis District representatives
were collected from Benaraby and the team was on its way. After a 4 hour bus
trip the boys arrived at the Across The Waves AFC grounds and went through a
brief training session involving shots at goals, kick outs and pack marking and
crumbing.
The carnival kick started on Saturday morning with
Capricornia playing their first game at 9:45am against a highly fancied Sunshine Coast. The Capricornia boys played
strong, physical football early and were rewarded taking a one goal lead into
quarter time. The Cap boys continued to play tough football but a lack of
experience at the next level combined with Sunshine Coast’s
ability to hold their positions on the very vast ATW surface saw the Coast pull
away and open up a useful 3 goal lead at three quarter time. Unfortunately for
Capricornia our boys ran out of steam and Sunshine Coast
ran out 6.1.37 – 1.3.9 victors.
In Capricornia’s second game of the day being played at
11:15am we saw the Cap boys take on the carnival hosts Bundaberg Wide Bay. This was a very
important match for both sides with each team chasing a much needed win to kick
start their campaigns. After the first quarter it was all square with both
teams kicking 2 goals a piece. However, the Cap boys really found their straps
thanks to the game against the high paced Sunny Coast and with Steven Mills and
Josh Herrington firing at full forward and the midfield (Chadwick, Davidson,
Gibson and co.) getting their hands on the footy Capricornia kicked clear. The
Capricornia boys would take out the match convincingly 11.3.69 to 4.4.28.
After the final match of the day saw Darling Downs move into
top spot with a gritty 9 point win over the Sunshine Coast it meant Capricornia
could be crowned champions should they defeat the Darling Downs in their final
match of the carnival on Sunday Morning. Unfortunately, for our boys Darling
Downs lived up to their reputation. Our boys should true spirit and fought hard
but the vast difference in size made it hard for the coaching staff to find
suitable matchups. In the end Capricornia fought valiantly to go down to the
Champions by 7 goals.
Well done to our 23 man squad as they represented
Capricornia superbly and showed great talent and future promise. Capricornia
were lucky enough to have 2 boys named in the Kookaburra’s Squad and one into
the Queensland Colts Squad to represent at the State Titles to be held in the
June/July School Holidays. These boys were Hamish Davidson (Kookaburra’s /
Panthers), Brandon Chadwick (Kookaburra’s / Glenmore) and Josh Herrington
(Colts / Yeppoon). While a number of other boys really put their hand up for
selection. There was two awards handed out with Gladstone’s Aaron Eilola being named Most
Improved Player for the carnival while the coaches award went to Glenmore’s Ben
O’Neill.
To all those boys who missed out keep going with your footy
and aim to improve. Should you need any information please come in and see
either Scott Smithwick or Tim Mackrill at the AFL Queensland Office on Musgrave
St or contact us on 49288088 and we can provide you with more information.
Written player reports will be sent out to each player over
the next few weeks identifying areas of improvement, strengths, weaknesses etc.
Finally, a big thank you to our coaching staff Glen
Durbridge (Yeppoon Swans) and Rob Hull (BITS Saints) for all your hard work in
getting the boys to play as professionally as they did and in helping
Capricornia continue their reputation of being tough, hard and fair
footballers. The final thank you must go to our sponsor Paul Archer and the
Good Guys for their continued support of our league and the development of
junior football in the Capricornia Region.
Last Modified on 11/06/2009 12:54