School teams from across Ipswich gathered at Limestone Park to battle it out for premiership glory in the Grand Finals of the Ipswich Primary Schools AFL Competition.
Teams from Bundamba, Mt Crosby, Churchill, Ipswich Central, Raceview, Ipswich Girls Grammar School, Bethany Lutheran Primary School and Silkstone State School played off for final placings during the week, before the season culminated in a Grand Final day on Friday.
Teams from Karalee, St Mary’s, Brassall State School, Blair State School and Ipswich Grammar took to the field in front of a strong crowd of parents and friends.
Blair and Ipswich Grammar played the final round of regular games in both the junior and senior boys’ competitions with mixed results making for some exciting football.
Blair took the junior game by one point with Ipswich Grammar repaying the favour, taking the senior game by the same margin.
In the first of the Grand Final games, a very strong Karalee team withstood a challenge from St Mary’s 2, claiming the girls’ division premiership with a 43-26 win.
Karalee coach Jon Buggins expressed pride in his team’s efforts having lost just one game this season.
St Mary’s and Brassall went head-to-head in the junior boys Grand Final, having been the two strongest teams all season.
Brassall were forced to peg back their opposition’s early lead after a hard and fast start.
Two late term goals secured a sixteen point victory for St Mary’s, taking the game 37 to Brassall’s 21.
It was back-to-back wins for St Mary’s when their senior boys’ team took their Grand Final by a similar margin, 36-21 over Karalee.
The two teams traded goals in the early stages of the game, with St Mary’s managing to open up a small lead at the end of the first quarter.
Karalee battled hard in the second and third terms, trailing by just three points at the final break.
Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t hold off St Mary’s who held strong in the final stages to seal the win.
Brisbane West School Development Officer, Ryan Stanley, said that all teams had improved over the season and most importantly had enjoyed themselves.
“Although premiers are decided in the final games it was really good to see the other schools, who didn’t make it to the Grand Final still enjoying their matches right to the very end,” he said.
“The Ipswich Primary Schools competition is continually one of our strongest and we’re really looking forward to running the competition again in 2013.”
Eight Ipswich primary school players were selected in the Future Stars (boys) and Sunfire Superstars (girls) teams based on their 2012 season.
