Physical Education 

Little Desert Football Lightning Premiership

On Wednesday June 1st Year 5 & 6 students from across the Kowree region united to form a formidable team in the Little Desert Football Lightning Premiership. We conducted one training session the week prior to have some indication of how it might come together and so the players could at least meet and greet their teammates.

Our first opponents were the Saints of St Michael’s. Given the home ground advantage and size differential the coaches were unsure how we might pull it together, but come together we did. It didn’t take long for the Swannies to hit the scoreboard through some Marcus McIntyre magic. Our Kowree team gelled very well, with a number of the boys playing together for the EAFC Saints, but it didn’t take long for the Balmoral and Goroke boys to link up with them. We were pushed in some aspects of the game but went out to win by 40 points. 

Without a break we moved onto taking on the Horsham Lutheran 1 Team. We continued where we left off from game one and dominated across the ground from start to finish only allowing our opponents to score one goal over the game. In quite trying conditions our boys used the ball well with a bit of razzle dazzle by Thomas, solid defence from Mason and some great dashing runs from Bailey Hartas. It was a resounding victory for our boys meaning we were going on to play in the Grand Final.

We were scheduled to play another game straight away,  just a friendly game against the Saints again. Given the fact it had no bearing on the Grand Final some players chose to sit out while other players just wanted to keep going. It was a much closer game than round one, with our side sneaking past but football was really the winner. 

The boys then had a solid break for lunch, fuelling up for the Big Dance and the possibility of making it to the next level of competition. Horsham Lutheran 2 dominated their side of the draw and become our foes for the Grand Final. It did burden on me the fact that the one school had two full sides and our one side was made up of students from 5 different schools – but that is a topic for another day. Our boys were seemingly intimated by the size of their opponents, and it was noticeable early on as the Lutheran side had control of the game, not so much on the score board but in general play. They did sneak out to be a couple of goals ahead after a controversial umpiring decision, but we stuck out our guns and came awfully close to snatching victory. It must be said that the loss was felt heavily by some, but as equally devastating was the fact that our Grand Final appearance had robbed us of the time to hit KFC on the way home. I thought there was going to be a mutiny!

It was a great day for the boys and was a really good reminder of what our small schools can achieve when we work together to give our young people the same opportunities as those in bigger towns and schools. For mine, it was a sign of the future and what local sporting teams and leagues may look at so that our young people have the opportunity to continue playing sport in competitive teams to help combat the drop off in participation rates.

A big shout out to Chris White for umpiring the day and his continuous support of our young people and to Buzz Brennan who coached the team as a part of his Sport and Recreation studies. 

Chad Frost