Page 23 - AFL QUEENSLAND 2013 YEAR IN REVIEW

The Gold Coast’s Palm Beach-Currumbin State High School experienced its most successful school footy year on record in 2013.
The Reds had a flawless season, taking out the four premierships on offer through the Schools of Excellence divisions and capping off the year by winning the interstate AFL Northern States Cup.
In the season-opening Jonathan Brown Cup, the Reds were undefeated and eventually overcame Helensvale State High in the final. In this modified carnival the schools of excellence introduce Year 8 students to a higher standard of excellence footy. PBC were relentless, laying a strong foundation for their junior season.
Their senior team went undefeated in the Senior Schools of Excellence Cup, breaking a five
year run of grand final losses to beat arch rivals Helensvale 10.3.63 to 6.10.46. The Reds’ Troy Sutherland won the best on ground medallion.
But it was the junior (U14) team who extended their extraordinary run of victories and consolidated their status as the premier junior school team in Queensland for the last few years,
undefeated in Queensland and throughout the northern states of Australia.
The juniors took out their fourth Schools of Excellence Cup competition, defeating a gallant Narangba Valley in the grand final in front of a home crowd at Salk Oval.
The team then flew to Cairns to take on Gold Coast SUNS Cup premiers St Augustine’s College and Brisbane Lions Cup premiers Brisbane Boys’ College, both of whom defeated convincingly.
These wins qualified them for an unprecedented fourth straight AFL Northern States Cup, where the best U14 school teams from New South Wales, the ACT and Northern Territory all compete to be crowned the best school team in Northern Australia.
Teachers Peter Hill, Jason Jeffrey, Chad Owens and Ben Opie had been charged with steering the AFL Sports Excellence program at PBC State High in the absence of long time manager Neil Mackay, who enjoyed a well-deserved long service break in 2013.
“2013 has been a rewarding year for the effort put in by the players and coaches alike,” Hill said.
“We have been working extremely hard to provide a holistic program that gives young footballers on the Gold Coast and Northern Rivers of NSW an opportunity to chase their dream.”
Palm Beach Currumbin is one of 11 schools in Queensland offering AFL as a curriculum subject, with a twelfth school, Springfield’s Woodcrest State College, to commence their AFL curriculum in 2014.
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FLAWLESS YEAR FOR PBC