Junior Competition: round 2 wrap
The weather proved a tough opponent again in round 2 of the Junior Competition, but it couldn’t stop 6 of the 12 scheduled matches from going ahead.
The highlight of the round was in the Under 11 match between Port Macquarie White and the Camden Haven Bombers, where the Bombers chalked up their first win in their second season back in the competition. This is a real testament to the character of the players who lost every match last season but persisted through a challenging season and have come back to the sport they love in 2017 and notched up a win at the first attempt. Credit also to the Port Macquarie players who played the match in the right spirit and battled on strongly to almost win the second half after being held scoreless to the main break.
Northern Beaches Blues continued their impressive start to the Under 11 season, recording a 35 point victory over the Coffs Breakers. The Blues overcame a slow start when they went scoreless in the first quarter, to hit the lead by half time and never look back.
Also in Under 11, Sawtell Toormina Saints won on the road against a young Grafton Tigers team. Sawtell are two wins from two in 2017, whilst the Tigers showed significant improvement and will keep getting better across the season.
In the Under 13 competition, Coffs Breakers recorded their first win of the season, leading at every break against the Northern Beaches Blues. This is another strong effort from the Blues in their first season in the Under 13 age group and it will be interesting to watch their development over the remainder of the season.
Sawtell Toormina Saints proved too strong in both Under 13 and Under 15.5 for the Grafton Tigers. The Saints Under 13s bounced back from last week’s surprise loss to beat a Tigers side that were very competitive in the first half but ran out of legs in the second. In the Under 15.5 match the Tigers looked rusty with this being their first match of the season and, while they struggled in the first half against the strong Sawtell unit, they fought back well in the second half to match it with the Saints.
The competition has the next two weeks off due to the school holidays and will resume on Sunday 30 April. This will be a watershed day for AFL North Coast as it will see the first round of fixtures in the Youth Girls competition involving teams from Grafton Tigers, Coffs Breakers, Macleay Valley Eagles, and Port Macquarie Magpies.
For full match results please click here.
