At an event which attracts some 100 Schools and more than 1,500 players from under 9’s to Open Age Primary, three Sutherland Shire Primary Schools have been successful in taking out their respective divisions at the annual NSW All Schools Knockout carnival.
Held at St Mary’s and with schools representing their districts from all over NSW including the North Coast, Mid North Coast, Newcastle, Central Coast, North West, Sydney Metro, Western Division, Illawarra and the South Coast, with three state titles schools representing Cronulla were the most successful.
Winning through their pools and progressing to Grand Finals, Engadine West in the 10A’s, Kurnell in the 10B’s and Gymea Bay in the Open A division, all came away with well-earned victories to be crowned NSW All Schools champions for 2014.
In the 10A division Engadine West Public School battled hard before defeating St Joseph’s Taree 18-6, while in the 10B (B division for smaller schools) it was Kurnell Public School who were dominant, winning convincingly by 28-0 against St Paul’s Gateshead.
In the All Schools Open A Grand Final Gymea Bay Public School reversed an earlier narrow pool loss in showing great character to beat Mona Vale Public School by 10-6 in a keenly contested affair. With the scores locked at 6-all at full time it was a Gymea Bay try in extra time which sealed the result.
One of the largest and most successful sporting schools in the district Gymea Bay has made the Open A final on previous occasions but have never been able to capture the title, with the victory a worthy reward for long serving teacher and coach Mr Brett Speer who has been a great supporter of primary school rugby league over many years.
All finalists in the All Schools representing the Sutherland Shire district, including the three champion schools, won their won through to the state Finals by winning the local Sharks All Schools event earlier in the year.
In the other divisions St Patricks Sutherland made it through to the semi finals before being beaten by eventual winners Regentville PS (Penrith), while Our Lady of Fatima similarly went through to a semi final match before going down to St Michael's Baulkum Hills (Parramatta).
Miranda North represented in the Open B division and gave a good account of themselves however with a win and two losses from their three games bowed out at the pool stage.
The NSW All Schools carnival continues over the next two days with High Schools and specialist Sports High Schools in action. Again Sutherland Shire schools are expected to be competitive in the various age groups.
