Townsville Blackhawks Schoolboy Trophy: Stars of the semi-finals revealed in Team of the Week
Ryan Catholic College and Columba Catholic College are set for a blockbuster grand final rematch after beating All Souls and Gilroy Santa Maria. Find out how both semi-finals went down and see the Team of the Week.
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Ryan Catholic College held on for a thrilling 22-18 semi-final win against All Souls St Gabriel’s School on Wednesday afternoon, locking in a grudge match with rivals Columba Catholic College in next week’s decider.
All Souls twice managed to come back from a six-point deficit in the second half, but Ryan’s blistering centre Taj Croft sealed the result when he scored a long-range matchwinner late in the match.
Ryan head coach Annan Whittington credited two of his tough forwards for playing big minutes after the side lost Aston Smith to injury earlier in the week, while also missing Jova Koroibulu and Ryan Rath.
“We had our backs against the wall even in the lead-up. We lost Aston – who is pretty influential – in our captain’s run,” he said.
“So we did it without a lot of quality cattle. That was the impressive thing: our ‘next man up’ mentality really shone through.
“Campbell St George and Aiden Stedman played the whole 60 minutes in the middle, so that was that was really good from them. As hooker and lock, they both stood up really well.”
Ryan got off to a great start when Conor Brazil crashed over for an early try before a Riley McIntyre 40/20 kick allowed the Northern Pool winners to start a set deep in attack.
It took little time for Zayd Smith to cross for Ryan and leading 12-0, it looked like the result could be more one-sided than expected.
But All Souls hit back just before halftime with some nice interplay on the right edge between fullback Greg Miller and winger Darcy Cameron resulted in a try to the No.1.
All Souls scored again after a costly fifth-tackle penalty gave the visitors a fresh set, which they capitalised on when Hayden Macor put in a perfect grubber for Cameron to dot down. A stunning sideline conversion from lock Archie Hay levelled the score.
A miscommunication at the back defusing a McIntyre bomb resulted in a Ryan try, but again All Souls dug deep to score when Macor dummied and slipped through the defence.
Locked up at 18-all late in the contest, another error gave Ryan a scrum 40 metres out and Croft raised his hand for the matchwinning run, burning through a hole with his speed to deliver his team a grand final berth.
All Souls coach Adrian Guldbransen said it was the little things that ultimately made the difference.
“Errors cost us and we had to go deep into our bench because of injuries,” he said.
“When you go deep into your bench, sometimes these things happen. But the boys never shirked it, we played some enterprising footy.
“I thought our middles really stood up against Ryan’s big fellas. Our No.8 and No.10, Billy (Elliott) and Xavier (Lord), played really well. We’ve got a good ballplaying lock there (Archie Hay) and both our second rowers play 60 minutes.
“We just weren’t quite good enough. We’ll regroup now and get our training focused on Confraternity.”
The Blackhawks Trophy decider will be played at Jack Manski Oval on Monday, June 9. The First XIII final kicks off at 6pm, and it will be pre-empted by the under-13s finals at 4pm and the under-15s final at 5pm.
RYAN CATHOLIC COLLEGE: 22 (Conor Brazil, Zayd Smith, Cooper Treveton, Taj Croft tries; Zayd Smith (2), Cooper Treveton (1) goals)
ALL SOULS ST GABRIEL’S SCHOOL: 18 (Greg Miller, Darcy Cameron, Hayden Macor tries; Ian Lamont, Archie Hay, Matty Robins goals)
COLUMBA CATHOLIC COLLEGE v GILROY SANTA MARIA COLLEGE
Columba Catholic College was the first school through to the 2025 grand final of the Townsville Blackhawks Schoolboy Trophy after beating Gilroy Santa Maria College 36-0 on Tuesday afternoon.
Elusive fullback Tom Scholes seemed to break at least one tackle with every touch, setting up Blake Wallace for the first try with a nice offload before the lightning-quick winger returned the favour late in the half to give Columba an 18-0 lead at the break.
Gilroy Santa Maria had fought valiantly through the opening 15 minutes to keep the score locked at nil-all but once the floodgates opened they could not be shut as Columba piled on the points.
Wallace scored again just after halftime with a full-field individual effort from a 20m tap, using his speed to weave through the desperate defence.
Gilroy prop Shaun Devietti was one of his side’s best, throwing some nice offloads to create second-phase play, while lock Kelin Corradi was relentless in defence with his chopping tackles.
Columba head coach Rohan Dixon said he was most proud of the defensive effort on display while lauding his young winger on a strong performance.
“I’m happy about keeping them to zero, but we did some things today that we’ve been doing for the last few games and hopefully we can just keep improving from that effort,” Dixon said.
“Blake Wallace is only a 15-year-old but he turns 16 this year. That was the first game he’s really shown us the talent that we all know he has got and hopefully he’ll embrace that going forward. He’s a genuine talent.”
Gilroy coach Matt Spina said his team showed plenty of courage to stay in the fight and match it with Columba for large stretches of the match.
“They were pretty good today. I know the scoreline probably doesn’t say it, but it was actually one of our better games of the year,” Spina said.
“We went back and forth with them – considering they’re probably a bit higher up, they’re a B division Confro team – so coming into it, I thought we were gonna get rolled over a bit through the middle, but I think our boys did pretty well.
“There are just a few little things like our kick-chase that we need to fix up but I was really proud of their efforts today.”
Ryan Catholic College took on All Souls St Gabriels’ School in the second semi-final on Wednesday afternoon.
The Blackhawks Trophy decider will be played at Jack Manski Oval on Monday, June 9. The First XIII final kicks off at 6pm, and it will be pre-empted by the under-13s finals at 4pm and the under-15s final at 5pm.
COLUMBA: 36 (Blake Wallace (2), Will Cursio (2), Tom Scholes, Zach Campbell tries; Tom Scholes (5), Tom Kirkwood goals)
GILROY SANTA MARIA: 0
TOWNSVILLE BULLETIN TEAM OF THE WEEK
1. Tom Scholes (Columba)
2. Blake Wallace (Columba)
3. Taj Croft (Ryan)
4. Jesse Lavery (Columba)
5. Darcy Cameron (All Souls)
6. Riley McIntyre (Ryan)
7. Hayden Macor (All Souls)
8. Xavier Lord (All Souls)
9. Cooper Thomas (Columba)
10. Shaun Devietti (GSMC)
11. Willis Froloff (All Souls)
12. Zach Campbell (Columba)
13. Campbell St George (Ryan)
14. Greg Miller (All Souls)
15. Kelin Carradi (GSMC)
16. Aiden Stedman (Ryan)
17. Billy Elliott (All Souls)
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