By Abbey Cannan
Four Noosa teens represented their state at the recent AFL Under 15 National Championships in Victoria, with one reaching their dream of taking out All-Australian at the closing ceremony.
Riley Mackay, Raffi and Remi Baviello from St Teresa’s Catholic College, and Darcy Dinnage from Sunshine Beach State High all currently play for the Noosa Tigers AFC.
At the championships they were undefeated in four games to go through to the Grand Final, before missing out to Victoria and landing second overall.
Their active participation in the Brisbane Lions Academy’s Level 1 and 2 programs since 2020 has contributed significantly to their development and progress.
At the closing ceremony, Raffi was awarded All-Australian, which is a huge honour.
“I honestly thought there was no chance,” Raffi said.
“I remember a week before we flew down to the competition, I was sitting with Mum and I was fully freaking out. I honestly thought I would kind of just fill in space on the field.
“I think before the first game, I just said to myself ‘being average just isn’t an option’.
“Getting named all-Australian was a dream, I can’t explain it. It just felt so out of reach going into the carnival. It was something that almost a year before the competition I had my mind set on achieving but as the chance got closer it felt less achievable.”
Raffi said the competition was a great experience to be a part of.
“It was so great to play amongst really talented girls that all share similar goals,” Raffi said.
“The girls on the team and the coaches made the experience 100 times better, it was something that I can’t describe and I’m so grateful for every single one of them. I loved playing at a more competitive level of footy because it really pushed me to play better than my best. It was so different from normal weekly footy games, I was really able to show what I could do as a player.”
Even though the team didn’t come home with first place, they still celebrated.
“I got the flu the day before the grand final and spent all day trying to get over it,” Raffi said.
“I was devastated when I realised I couldn’t play for the team one last time.
“When you put it into perspective we still played a really good carnival, we went undefeated all week up until that last game and I think that’s still a massive effort from the girls.”
Raffi said her next goal was getting picked for the U18 Queensland’s side next year.
“That’s the next step for me at the moment, to then hopefully get drafted to the AFLW in a couple years.”
