Janine Owen Koorey
Over the weekend, two out of three of our AFL junior competitive teams (U/13 girls and U/15 boys) won the grand final, making them premiers of their competitions.
We play in the SEQ AFL comp against much bigger and better-resourced Gold Coast clubs, and yet both the Byron teams finished minor premiers and then major winners.
The girls team has an incredible story. Last year, we could only recruit six girls, and in the end, merged with Lismore and Murwillimbah to form a Northern Rivers team.
We lost every game and barely scored points the entire season.
This year, we had 24 girls register for Byron Magpies as its own club; 19 of these girls had never played AFL or even watched a game.
Under the leadership of coach Colin Hussey the girls formed one large, solid team both on and off the field winning 13 out of 18 games they played all season.
They beat Coomera in a nail-biter grand final in 32- degree heat.
To have a small developing regional club that can head up the M1 motorway and compete against much larger Gold Coast clubs – and win – is a remarkable achievement.
The U/15 boys merged with Ballina junior AFL club to make a Ballina/Byron team, and much like the girls, they dominated their competition finishing as minor and major premiers, beating Broadbeach in the grand final.
We would love to see our club continue to grow and have plans for three girls teams next year: U/11s, U/13s and U/15s, as well as multiple mixed teams in the U/9s, U/11s, U/13s and U/15s.
To join our pre-season training, keep an eye on our socials on Instagram.
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