Victorian Under-12 schoolgirl footy stars win gold

The Victorian under-12 schoolgirls took home gold in this year’s national championships with a few FUTURE STARS shining bright. See the names:

The Victorian girls Under 12 football team took home gold in this year’s inaugural Australian rules national championships.

The week-long tournament saw 23 players take the trip to Adelaide to participate in the event.

It came down to the last day where Victoria played home team South Australia in a grand final-like match where the winner took gold and loser received second.

A seven-point lead at quarter time for Victoria proved the difference as the travelling side held on to defeat South Australia, 1.5 (11) to 1.2 (8).

Victorian girls captain Isabelle Le and South Australian boys captain Harrison Webb with the winners trophies after the School Sport Australia U12 Australian Football Championships at Norwood Oval. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Victoria coach Ben Harris said he saw a great improvement in the girls throughout the week.

“Their maturity level throughout the week just increased and something we were extremely proud of as well,” Harris said.

“Their ability to adapt and develop was something I really noticed and something that I didn’t foresee before we started.

“These girls were selected as the top 23 in all of Victoria and these girls have actually never sat on the bench before at their local club level.

“So they had to develop a lot of resilience with that and get used to getting rotated through different positions and the bench as well.”

Harris said the tournament showed that women’s footy had a bright future.

“Where girls and women’s footy is at now is extremely exciting,” he said.

“To actually see the standard and calibre of talent in that gold medal match, it blew my mind.

“It’s really in a very strong position. It really has a place in Australian football.”

Harris said the inaugural tournament set the record books in many ways particularly in one notable moment when the players sung their original song after their first win against Queensland.

“The girls asked me, ‘what song do we sing’ and I actually said to them, ‘look, this is the first ever team so you‘re writing your own history here so if you want to come up with your own song, you can,” he said.

“The girls actually made up their own song, completely original, doesn’t go to any of the AFL theme songs as well.

“It was just awesome, so cool that they could come up with their own song as well.”

Inaugural Vic Under-12 girls footy team sing original song in first win

FUTURE STARS: Best under-12 schoolgirl footballers revealed

Deena Gerges

School: Mill Park Primary School

Strengths: Powerful, endurance, skilful.

Harris described Gerges as “a super star in the making” who was “arguably the best player in the tournament”. A player to watch who played a great tournament as a midfielder. Likened to Erin Phillips in the way she plays as a taller player.

Jasmine Jones

School: Oxley Christian College

Strengths: Awareness, strong mark, goal sense.

Bethany Grenness

School: Bass Valley Primary School

Strengths: Strong midfield player, great at winning the hard ball

Emelia Evans

School: Geelong Lutheran College

Strengths: Ultra-reliable wherever she plays, able to solve a lot of problems around the ground.

Ava Bortignon

School: Holy Trinity Primary School

Strengths: A very brave player, she places her body in places where she knows she will get heavy contact and wins the ball.

Sienna Schmidt

School: St Therese School

Strengths: Extremely skilled player on the wings. One of our best field kicks.

Special mention to Jasmine Jones and Indy Springett who also won gold for the Team Vic 12yr girls basketball team the following week.