Players ready for Paul Kelly Cup

The best up and coming primary school AFL players will be looking to impress next week when they travel to Blacktown Olympic Park for the Paul Kelly Cup State Final.

With over 15,000 participants across 950 teams, the Paul Kelly Cup is one of the largest primary schools based competitions in Australia.

Having played their way through a number of knockout matches in their state-based region already this year, the best 24 boy teams and 15 girls teams will battle it out for the coveted Paul Kelly Cup.

To make the journey even more special for the budding AFL juniors is the fact Team GWS’ Paul Kelly will be in attendance to offer first-hand advice to the players. Dual premiership winning captain with Geelong, Tom Harley, will also be there to pass on his AFL expertise as will players in the Sydney Women’s AFL (SWAFL) competition.

This year’s event also marks the first year a girls competition has participated in the Paul Kelly Cup.
 
AFL (NSW/ACT) Schools and Universities Coordinator Mark Ayers said the two-day event will be a great experience for the kids.

“This is the perfect opportunity for kids from all over the state to come together who all share a common interest in AFL,” Ayers said.

“It’s not everyday people, let alone kids in grades five and six, get the chance to play at a world class facility and the home of Team GWS.

“Since the inception of the Paul Kelly Cup in 1997, the competition has grown rapidly and it will be a fitting reward for the school that gets their name engraved on the sought-after Cup.”

The Paul Kelly Cup competition launched the career of Sydney Swans young gun Kieren Jack. With the Sydney Swans and Team GWS looking for kids to be part of their Academy in the future, it may be only a matter of time until the next Jack is running around in the AFL.

Former Sydney Swans captain, Paul Kelly, the player the competition is named after, said it will be a fantastic experience for all the players involved.

“I hope we’ll find a few stars next week. There is some terrific talent around at the moment, but these kids are quite young so at the end of the day it is all about participation and for the players to represent their school,” Kelly said.

“I think the kids can expect tough competition playing against the best regional winners from around the state and it will be the first time some of the players get to travel to Sydney and see the great resources at Blacktown Olympic Park.”

The opening day of the Paul Kelly Cup State Finals on September 6 will see the girls battle it out in their three pools before progressing through to a qualifying final then semi final and ultimately to the grand final.

While September 7 will see the boys vie for the Cup with the six winning schools from their respective pools progressing through to a qualifying, semi and then grand final.

Click here for the girls draw and click here for the boys draw.