Southern Stars ready to shine in Cairns

The Championships may still be 14 weeks away but the Under 17 Southern Stars youth girls representative squad is already in action, preparing their assault on the 2012 Yourth Girls State Championships.

It was an agonising 1-point loss to the Brisbane Flames in last year’s Championships Grand-Final in Cairns but the Stars say they are ready to shine and take the mantle from their South East Queensland rivals.

The Southern Stars representative squad combines girls from the Darling Downs, Northern Rivers and Gold Coast regions into one team.

The Southern Stars main focus isn’t on winning the championships but developing and strengthening Female footy not only in the individual regions but in Southern Queensland/Northern New South Wales.

In 2010 AFL Queensland development staff Jeff Neumann (Darling Downs) and Brent Kelly (Northern Rivers) got together and put forward to Female Programs Manager Julia Price that the SEQ region split into two, to give more Youth Girls the opportunity of playing AFL at representative level.

And from there it has taken off with 19 Southern Stars girls selected in either the Queensland side (under 18) or the Queensland Merit team (u16 All-stars).

The Southern Stars held their trial over the weekend at Pacific Pines JAFC on the Gold Coast with close to 50girls nominating and wanting to be a part of the 2012 squad. With only 30 spots available in the squad, girls put in every effort to get selected as selectors had their hands full.

A squad of 30 was compiled and made up of 18 Gold Coast girls, 10 Darling Downs and 2 Northern Rivers, from here the squad needs to be cut down to 24 before the October championships. The squad of 30;