By ANITA ANDERSON
Junior Grand Finals, 25 June
Under a clear blue sky and with the temperature plummeting, a marvellous afternoon was had at the junior grand finals to end the winter season.
The Under-10 division got the afternoon underway with a sickness ravaged Cool Runnings being beaten in a courageous effort against a better team in the Maroons.
The Maroons, who have set the standard all season, were relentless in their attack.
It was a mighty effort by all of the players on the field.
The Purple Panthers played a great game against Good Shepherd which came away with the win by just one touchdown.
Blazers and Twisters played an entertaining match with Blazers eventually coming out on top.
The improvement in skills and match play within the U10s has been outstanding this season.
Team players of the season for their sportsmanship, support and respect for their own team mates, opposition and officials were Maddie Dwyer and Zayne Miller.
Next in the line-up for grand final glory saw games in the U12 division.
The Saints, under the guidance of Baz, had a convincing win over That Cool Team.
The Banana Splits and Good Shepherd played well but the Splits were just too good on the day.
The final match in this division saw the Purple Storm girls saving their best performance until last with a well earned win over Steppers.
Team players for U12s were Morgan Maher and Noah Kelly.
Moving on into the U14/16 division saw a battle of the boys between the ironically (considering the icy conditions) named Inferno and NDSHS 8s boys.
All in all this was a brilliant game by both teams.
The match between ABL2 and NDSHS 9s saw the under manned ABL2 team get out to an early lead and managed to hold on gamely against the stronger finishing NDSHS 9s.
High expectations were held in the game between St Teresa’s Maroon and Sunshine Rebels due to their last encounter resulting in a ‘drop off’ win to St Teresa’s.
Both teams didn’t disappoint their supporters and delivered a high quality match with Sunshine Rebels, playing with no subs, getting the better of St Teresa’s in this one.
In a game that went down to the wire, SBSHS 16s just got the better of Good Shepherd.
Both teams gave it their all for the entire match.
The final match of the day turned out to be the battle for Year 8 supremacy between NDSHS 8s Green and NDSHS 8s Blue.
In a reversal of fortune from the semi final match the Blue team definitely peaked at the right end of the season and took the win.
Jerry-Lee Flynn and Billy Flynn were named Team Players of the Season in the U14/16 division.
Each season clubs like to acknowledge the huge effort that is put in each and every week by the junior referees.
While each and every one of them is truly appreciated, this season two of the referees have been nominated to receive an award.
The Referee Encouragement Award went to Scott Bailey.
This is a remarkable achievement for Scott in his first season as a referee.
The Referee of the Season award was earned by Giverny Robinson for her continued dedication and effort put forward in this position.
Noosa Touch would like to thank all players, referees coaches and supporters for a terrific season.
A big thank you to Cooroy IGA for its continued support of the grand final sausage sizzles.
The summer season sign on will be on the 23 July with games scheduled to commence the following week.
The regular season may be over but the Noosa representative teams have been training over the past couple of months in the lead-up to the Queensland Junior State Cup which will be held over three days from 11 to 13 July.
More than 200 teams from all over Queensland will compete in both girls’ and boys’ competitions in age divisions from U10s right through to U18s.
Nine Noosa teams consisting of more than 90 players, supported by referees, coaches, managers and families will travel to Hervey Bay.
Best of luck to all of these players, they are bound to do themselves and the club proud.
