Belmont and South Coogee take home Cup

It’s not every day budding AFL juniors get the chance to play against the Sydney Swans but that’s exactly what Paul Kelly Cup regional champions Belmont Christian College and South Coogee did on Friday.

As a result of winning their regional Paul Kelly Cup final, the Hunter and Sydney schools took on the Swans’ young guns in the inaugural Swans Challenge.

With the likes of Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker, Ted Richards, Gary Rohan, Mark Seaby, Tommy Walsh and others lining up in the red and white it was always going to be a challenging match.

But the enthusiastic Belmont and South Coogee students took it up to the pros winning their highly entertaining matches by ten points and one point respectively.

As a result of their victory, the coveted Swans Challenge Cup will be heading to the Hunter and Sydney for the very first time. It will be a long 12 months before next year’s Paul Kelly Cup winners get their chance to claim the Cup against the Swans.

Overall, it was an amazing experience for the primary school students to play their idols and to get a few autographs after their match.

It wasn’t only the kids who enjoyed the afternoon, with Swans’ rising star Daniel Hannebery having an absolute blast.

“I really enjoyed that. It was great to see so many young kids, girls and guys, all enjoying footy and having good fun,” he said.

Australian football in New South Wales is on the rise with participation rates booming across the state – particularly in the Hunter and Sydney Harbour regions.

This year, participation rates grew 9.44% in the Hunter and 5.79% in Sydney Harbour as over 136,000 kids and adults played the game.

“Since being drafted in 2008, we’ve had a number of community camps, clinics and school visits and you can really see the kids’ interest [in AFL] really rise,” Hannebery said.

“There’s a lot more kids playing footy now and it’s really growing in Sydney and NSW.

“We need to do a lot more work to get the word out there but AFL is definitely growing as a sport in NSW.”

The Paul Kelly Cup is one of the biggest primary school sporting competitions in Australia with over 15,000 students and 1000 teams taking part this year.

Only two schools – South Coogee Public School (Sydney) and Belmont Christian College (Hunter) – were given the opportunity to play against the Swans as a result of winning their regional finals this year.