Held at Feighan Oval in Warners Bay, the Diocese was represented by a number of teams at the 2019 Paul Kelly Cup Hunter Regional Finals who each won their local rounds to progress to the regional finals.
For the boy’s teams, St Mary's Primary School, Warners Bay were undefeated throughout the Paul Kelly Cup Lake Macquarie Gala Day, defeating Biddabah Public School, Belmont Christian College and Edgeworth Public School to progress to the state Finals.
St Michael’s Primary School, Nelson Bay won their local round, as did St Catherine’s Catholic College, Singleton who defeated Singleton Public School, 84-0.
At the regional final, Singleton was the stronger of the three Catholic schools, beating Warners Bay and Nelson Bay but losing to Dudley.
For the girl’s team, St Catherine’s won their local game against Singleton Public, 133-0 and during the Hunter Regional finals they continued to dominate, defeating Biddabah 60-0, Tomaree 82-0 and Dudley 51-0.
St Catherine’s coach, Patrick Fitzgerald, believes they can go all the way at the state final in Sydney, where the winners of all regional days from NSW and ACT will battle it out to be named the Paul Kelly Cup winners.
In more AFL news, up and coming AFL player from St Catherine’s, Kalani Bates, represented NSW Combined Catholic Colleges (NSWCCC) at the NSW All Schools Championships.
Kalani’s skill contributed to her team dominating the competition, finishing in first and beating CIS, Riverina Combined High Schools (CHS) and Greater Sydney CHS.
Kalani‘s outstanding talent was rewarded with her being named in the NSW All Schools team.
She will now play for NSW at the School Sport Australia Championships.