St Laurence’s College’s will be crowned AIC Australian football premiers for the third successive year.
St Laurence’s College will be crowned AIC Australian football premiers for the third successive year.
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St Laurence’s College will be crowned AIC Australian football premiers for the third successive year.
With one round remaining, the undefeated opens cannot be knocked off top place.
The premiership followed St Laurence’s winning the inaugural AIC title in 2019, and again last year when the school shared the title with St Patrick’s College.
St Laurence’s will now progress to the Q Schools finals to be staged later in the year. Those finals will be livestreamed by www.couriermail.com.au.
Unbeaten Villanova were almost certainly claim the 7A premiership, while Padua College were favoured to win the year 8-9 premiership.
College principal Chris Leadbetter said there were several reasons for the success.
“Our program coordinator, Sam Wiltshire, has been instrumental in developing a positive AFL culture at the school,’’ Leadbetter said.
“Much success has been due to our partnership with key coaches and with the Brisbane Lions and their Academy.
“I was delighted to see many of the older boys working with our younger players.
“I am particularly proud of those boys that have been in our B teams where we have filled in for some schools without teams.
“These boys have shown a great commitment to their team mates.
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“I also congratulate all AIC principals for taking a risk to introduce this new program.’’
While he was not available to play for St Laurence’s, Harry Sharp, the Lions draftee who is completing Year 12, was a keen supporter of the team during the season.
Wiltshire said probably the biggest highlight, among many, was “the buy in and commitment of our senior group’’.
Wiltshire said this week, despite the senior group having a bye, almost all members attended morning training for 7s, 8s and 9s training instead of “having a sleep in’’.
AFL Queensland Participation and Programs Manager – Schools and Diversity (QLD), Damien Mitchelmore, said the league was delighted with the continued success of AIC football.
“We are thrilled with the AIC competition and to have it now firmly apart of their annual sporting calendar is a huge reflection of the growing popularity of AFL in the school systems,’’ he said.
“We’ve worked very closely with the AIC to establish the competition and will continue to do so moving forward. We look forward to continuing to see the competition go from strength to strength.”
“The competition allows for over 1000 students to play Australian football while also now strongly linking to talent pathways.”
“The strength of the primary program is reflective in the 6A premiers being state champions and runners up in the 2019 and 2020 AFLQ Schools Cup’s.”
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