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SAINTS MAKING THE RULES History was made on Saturday 19 February with the first bounce of QGSSSA inaugural Senior Australian Rules competition. With College Senior Leaders and AFL royalty in attendance, the 16-strong team of QG schools was officially launched. ANTHONY COX
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n the first game of the inaugural competition, St Peters triumphed 9.12.66 defeating Ipswich Girls Grammar 1.3.9. With this win under their belt, Anthony Cox spoke with Head of Girls Sport, Anne-Marie Champion, and St Peters Australian Rules Captains, Ava Turner and Delta Perkins (pictured facing page, centre). What were the initial sign-up numbers like for Australian Rules and did you think you could get the numbers to be involved? Anne-Marie Champion: We had very strong interest from the girls and this we see only increasing as the sport continues to develop within the school program. What were some of the challenges you needed to overcome for introducing Australian Rules into the St Peters sporting fixtures? AMC: Some of the challenges of introducing Australian Rules into the QGSSSA program was scheduling it into what was already a busy year of fixtures.
Years 10 to 12 were in Term 1 and Years 7 to 9 are in Term 4. I think we know our numbers are going to be massive for Juniors moving into Term 4. It did prove challenging for our Senior girls who have played Touch or Basketball for many years to fit in Australian Rules. We did just make it work to get the balance through to give the girls the opportunity to give Australian Rules a go, particularly for our Year 12 girls as this opportunity was a taste for that I can see they're going to go on and play AFL outside of school over the next few years. What was the most rewarding aspect of the introduction of Australian Rules for this year’s sport? Watch: 2022 QGSSSA AFL Launch.
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AMC: It was a huge honour to be involved for me personally and to see how the school has got behind the introduction to girls Australian Rules has been great to see. It
has been a huge success, driven extremely well by Amy Anderton (Executive Officer, QGSSSA). Seeing the girls get an opportunity to play at Metricon Stadium (Home of the Gold Coast Suns), something many Australian Rules participants would love the opportunity to do. Having grown up in the landscape of Australian Rules, what does this mean to you to see women’s Australian Rules firstly, make the National stage, and then, to be introduced into the school level? AMC: The most rewarding aspect of the introduction of Women's Australian Rules (for someone who grew up in country South Australia involved with Australian Rules for my entire life) is that I loved watching the game then and I enjoy seeing how the sport has grown. I'm enjoying seeing how talented our St Peters girls are and how quickly they pick up the skills. And yes, you could see where other sports skills, particularly girls that played ball sports that requires good hand/eye coordination, certainly picked up the skills required very quickly. Anyone that's athletic really took to the game because it involves quite a lot of running which certainly tested everyone's fitness. But, just to see the girls try something new and to see how much they loved it was so rewarding. Did current Brisbane Lions AFL Women’s team member, and Old Scholar, Greta Bodey (2012), have any involvement with the program here at St Peters? AMC: In 2021 Greta and fellow Brisbane Lions player, Gabby Collingwood, were a part of our Coaching team who joined us for the skills sessions that were held at Rangakarra, joined with Brisbane Girls Grammar School. Unfortunately Greta, playing high level football for the Brisbane Lions, was unable to help us in our inaugural season due to
