Bundarra Central kept up with the bigger schools in the area all the way through the north west primary girls touch knockout competition, finishing with a second place overall.
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“They were very competitive,” said coach and teacher Nigel Henley.
“They won all their games by four points or more during the competition, so they were pretty dominant up until the final,” he said.
“A pretty good effort from one of the smaller schools that probably entered the competition, I would suggest.”
Bundarra beat Armidale’s Ben Venue, Warialda Public School, Tenterfield’s Sir Henry Parkes Memorial School and Ross Hill Primary School before losing to Hillvue in their final. The small school didn’t go down without a fight, and held on to a 6-6 score by full-time. Bundarra finally lost by one point in a drop off.
“We’re just unlucky more than anything, I think we were definitely in a chance to win it,” Henley said.
They won all their games by four points or more during the competition, so they were pretty dominant up until the final.
- Nigel Henley
He said Hillvue were tough competitiors.
“We were lucky enough to get a pass away towards the end there and we got a set of six back but weren’t able to hold onto the ball unfortunately. I’m very, very proud of them.”
The team was lead confidently by Tishari Morgan, Paige Vickery and Irene Hickman, who have all played in the north west representative side.
“The other 10 students were girls that played and trained hard together and joined in with those three experienced players and ended up getting all the way through to the final, and just missed out on going to Sydney to play with the other regional players,” Henley said with pride.
He said the Bundarra Central side’s greatest strength was their ability to work together as a team.
“You can’t have two or three really standout players, because they’ll just burn themselves out. It’s more really good teamwork and listening and communicating well, and they trained well too,” he said. He felt the girls had done well to attend the holiday training sessions with enthusiasm.
Henley was particularly grateful to the parents for their unwavering support.
“I think Bundarra’s touch footy future’s looking positive still,” he said.