The ACT girls team won the Bronze medal in the School Sport Australia Under 12 Football Championship held at Nelson Bay, NSW last week, equalling the achievement of the ACT girls in the 2007 Championship and improving on the 4th placing achieved by the ACT girls in 2008 and 2009. Boys and girls teams from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory also competed, with New South Wales winning gold and Queensland silver in the Girls competition in a tight contest.
The ACT girls, coached by Tom Crossley, improved greatly over the week after bruising losses to New South Wales and Queensland on the first day, and went on to beat South Australia, Victoria and Northern Territory in the preliminary stage. In the round-robin stage they drew with New South Wales but lost again to Queensland. Maddie Shevlin scored four goals, with one goal each from Ruth Kravis, Georgia Fogarty, Mykala van Deyk, Eddie Nelson, and Samantha Roff.
Although they dominated most of their games with excellent defensive and midfield work the ACT boys team seldom managed to turn their chances into goals and were placed 5th, ahead of Northern Territory, in the same position as last year. With better finishing, they would have broken the dominance of New South Wales and Queensland in the boys competition, and with the 2011 competition to be held in Canberra, next year’s team may have a good opportunity to do this.