Friendly and energetic, the matches were the culmination of a five week in-school Auskick sporting skills program which both schools participated in. 

“(It’s) just to wrap up the program and give the kids some experience now at transferring those skills into a game. We’ve put the two schools together for just friendly matches,” Gilgai Public School principal Deb Halliday said. 

“Some of the kids are swapping teams, it’s just a friendly, and it’s just so that they get to put some of the skills that they learnt in that five week program into an actual game.”

The schools had been waiting some time to play one another, after they were rained out last term.

Inverell Public School teacher David Opie joined in enthusiastically, and said the students were having a great time while learning valuable skills.

“Teamwork being one of the biggest ones. Being stuck in the separate zones, they have to try to work to get their way to the goals,” he said.

He said the children were also picking up some worthwhile ball skills and that many of the inexperienced players were improving significantly.

“For a lot of them it’s really new skills and they find that very hard. They want to throw the ball, and not hand ball, and so learning all of that,” local AFL development officer Sonia Martin said. 

She felt the students’ sense of fun and sportsmanship stood out.

“You can see one of the Inverell girls is playing for Gilgai and laughing and having a lot of fun - they’re all enjoying it,” she said.

Martin said the day was also an important social event for both schools, who ate lunch together and took the time to get to know one another.

“It’s small schools mixing with the big schools, which is fun,” she said.

“That’s what it’s about. Kids coming together and having fun,” Halliday said.

Not all of the children were new to the game, with some experienced Auskickers and junior players also taking part.

“We team them up together, and they’re enhancing their skills,” Martin said.

Along with the primary students, several experienced and up and coming Auskick and juniors players from Macintyre High School joined in as mentors and umpires.

Martin said the Auskick in-school AFL program was available to all schools in the area.

“I worked at Glen Innes, Inverell, Moree, Armidale. So anywhere within that catchment area, we can do these programs,” she said.