SAINTS SPORT

JSS Grand Finals

St Augustine’s junior students compete in the weekly JSS competition during Semester 2. The competition consisted of eight teams from nine different schools across Cairns. At the conclusion of the regular season, four out of five Saints JSS teams qualified for the top four Premier Division finals with volleyball placing sixth and competing in the Division 1 finals.

Saints’ AFL squad had another strong season finishing in second place after being upset by their eventual grand final opponents, Bentley Park College, in the regular season. They breezed through their semifinal against Newman College to set up a rematch against Bentley Park College in the final. They re-established themselves as the benchmark of the competition with a dominant 56-12 win with Xavier Sullivan named as player of the final.

Saints fielded a young basketball team and were very competitive throughout the season, securing five wins and two losses to finish in third place at the end of the regular season. In the semifinals, they came up against a strong Bentley Park team who defeated us by one point in our round clash earlier in the season. They got one back on their opponents and secured a strong 65-36-point victory to set up a grand final against the highly fancied Cairns High team. The boys fought hard in the grand final and got within single digits of Cairns High in the second half before going down 63-36 points to finish as runners-up.

Our football team had an up-and-down season and finished fourth at the end of the round games. The boys were unable to capitalise on their chances and close out games, finishing with two draws and two losses to go with their three wins. This led to a semifinal against the undefeated minor premiers, Cairns High. The boys started the game strongly scoring the first goal, before conceding one to go into halftime at 1-1. Needing to win the game to progress, the boys went on the attack and ultimately conceded two second-half goals to go down 3-1, bowing out in the semis.

Saints’ touch team started the season with a draw against St Andrew’s and remained undefeated from then on to qualify in second place on for-and-against, securing a home semi-final against a tough Bentley Park side. The boys got up a 7-5 encounter to set up a grand final showdown with the other undefeated side, St Andrew’s. Both sides traded blows in the grand final with Saints proving too strong and securing a 7-6 win to be crowned as champions.

St Augustine’s fielded a young and inexperienced volleyball team. As a result, the boys had a tough start to the season, losing three and drawing one of their opening four matches despite being competitive in all these contests. They won two of their remaining three matches to finish in seventh place and qualify for the Division 1 semifinals. Saints came up against a Bentley Park team who finished on equal points after the regular season. The boys were unable to capitalise on their chances going down 2-0.

The efforts of our teams once again led to Saints being crowned as the Overall Champion Boys’ School and Saints combined with St Monica’s being crowned the Champion School.

• AFL – Premiers
• Basketball – Runners-up
• Football – Premier Division semifinalists (fourth place)
• Touch football – Premiers
• Volleyball – Division 1 semifinalists (sixth place) 

Thanks to Saints’ JSS coaches: Mr Aaron Hume (AFL), Mr Bryce Chapman (basketball), Mr Dan Darveniza and Mr Greg Millward (football), Mr John Brimstone (touch football) and Mrs Charlotte Rettke and Year 11 student Evan Ung (volleyball) for your work with the boys throughout the season.

Futsal Nationals

St Augustine’s Opens and U13s Futsal teams travelled to Brisbane to participate in the national finals of the FQ Futsal competition. Our Opens team had a challenging campaign and was unfortunately eliminated in the pool stage of the tournament. Our U13s lost their first pool game before winning their remaining pool games to make the quarterfinals against Corinda SHS. Both teams exchanged goals before Corinda scored two late goals to take a 4-2 victory, eliminating Saints in the quarters. Well done to both teams for progressing to the national finals of the competition.