Thursday, 18 August, 2011
AFL Queensland has paid a special tribute to two stalwarts of the Queensland Independent Schools competition, Margery McIntyre and John Stackpoole, by naming premiership cups in their honour, just as they did Jason Dunstall and Michael Voss, among others. Here, we detail the story behind Margery McIntyre.
Margery McIntyre was the inspiration behind the Independent Schools Year 7 competition so it was only appropriate that her name should adorn the cup presented to the winning team.
The primary school teacher from Brisbane Boys College (BBC) joined the staff there in the same year as which the first Independent Schools fixtures were founded in 1991.
An avid AFL fan, she went and watched all the games involving the Open and Under 15 teams in the fledgling years.
It prompted her fellow teachers to encourage her to get involved and in 1994 Margery was appointed Teacher-In-Charge (or team manager) of the Under 15 team.
She began attending Independent Schools meetings with the QAFL Development Foundation and quickly became the MIC (Master In Charge) of the college’s entire AFL program in 1995.
Under Margery’s administration, BBC has grown to provide the most teams and players across the Independent Schools system.
Such was the interest generated that the school began forming ‘Seconds’ teams in some of the age groups, and implemented a strategy using 12-month younger students as a means of grooming them for the following season.
Churchie followed suit and eventually competitions such as the Under 14s spawned two divisions.
The same philosophy was applied to the Under 13s by BBC, with 12-year-olds being encouraged to play in the Division 2 which, with Margery’s persistence, led to the formation of the Year 7 competition.
Such is Margery’s passion for the BBC AFL program that it is currently the only Independent School to stage an end-of-season dinner, and premiership-winning sides are afforded the same recognition as any other codes who win GPS titles.
The support of the BBC hierarchy to make this all possible is most important for Margery.
A classroom teacher from 1991-2002, she has been teaching drama and dance in the primary school since then.
Originally from Victoria, she was a fervent Collingwood supporter until moving north, where she became a Brisbane Bears member in 1989 and has been a full member ever since.
“I just love having this many BBC kids involved in playing AFL,” she said of the highlight of her long time involved in the AFL program at the school.
