Youth teams in AFL Grand Final curtain-raiserBROKEN Hills Dylan Stuart's NSW/ACT Rams side achieved two things in its 36-point victory over the Northern Territory at the weekend: book a place in the AFL under-16 national championship division 2 grand final, and play that match as the curtain-raiser to the AFL Grand Final in September.
Stuart (pictured), a Hawthorn NSW Scholarship holder (one of two Indigenous young men from Broken Hill on a Hawks scholarship) booted two goals in the Rams' 14.9 (93) to 9.3 (57) win against the Thunder at the AFL's new ground at Blacktown, in Sydney's west.
It was the first official games of football played at the ground, which will become the base for the AFL's proposed Western Sydney club, the league's 18th, by at least 2013.
The Rams will play Queensland for Division 2 bragging rights at the MCG. It will also provide the youth teams a rare opportunity to play football at the game's spiritual home.
Stuart is into his second year as a scholarship holder with Hawthorn, joining fellow Broken Hill resident Thomas Kickett at the AFL club.
Curtley Hampson, from Santa Teresa in Central Australia, was the Thunder's best player, bagging five of the Territory's nine goals.
DARREN MONCRIEFF
Darren@AboriginalFootball.com.au
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Last Modified on 14/07/2009 19:26