Finals time for Paul Kelly Cup

By Sarah Browne

The Paul Kelly Cup is the largest AFL Primary School competition in NSW and the ACT and is open to students in Years 5 and 6.

The GIANTS Zone consists of schools from southern NSW, Greater Western Sydney as well as the ACT.

This year schools from as far as Albury made the trip to chilly Canberra for the chance to be declared the GIANTS Zone winners.

The girls competition began the festivities of the day, with the eight competing schools split into two pools.

The final came down to Wagga Wagga Public School vs. Glenmore Park Public School, who had both played terrific football throughout the day.

Wagga Wagga won through to the final undefeated, with a close contest against St Patrick’s Primary School almost undoing their perfect streak.

Glenmore were also undefeated during their pool games, a tremendous feat for a team who has never played AFL before.

The Grand final was a close contest, however Glenmore were victorious by just three points.

The boys contest kicked off with some high-scoring results across the board.

St Patrick’s Parish School from Albury made their long trip worthwhile, managing to score 68 points in just twenty minutes of play, while St Michael’s Primary School from Coolamon won their first game by 52 points.

In the end, it was these goal scoring machines that won through to the Grand Final.

Both teams put in all they had to win and it was St Patrick’s who were victorious by 33 points.

Both St Patrick’s and Glenmore will now get the opportunity to play on ANZ Stadium during the half-time break of the Sydney Swans vs. Hawthorn AFL match in the last round of the home and away season.