13 May 2021
Tuesday, MRHS headed down to the Griffith Exies Sports Club to compete in the AFL Gala Day. It was a knockout style elimination for school AFL teams in the region.
Both the MRHS girls and boys teams proved Murrumbidgee’s mettle as an AFL school. The girls team scored a very clean win against Yanco Ag only to be knocked out by Narrandera High School. Meanwhile, across the ground the boys team absolutely dominated on the field, taking on and easily defeating Marion Catholic College and Narrandera High School. There was a bit of fight from St Francis with an early lead from the rival team, but MRHS eventually found their footing and won with a resounding victory.
Some of the key players on the girls team were Noa Taipaleti who showed some great leadership on the field and landed some solid tackles, Alyssa Quinn who made some excellent marks and Ella Morrissey who took control of the middle and made some big hits.
Kahlan Spencer, captain of the boys team, lead by example on the day. He was the first person into contests and always came out with the ball. Isaac Piva provided plenty of drive in the backline and was the centre of the team’s defense. Meanwhile, Jamie Best and Jordan Whitworth were the quiet achievers on the field, putting in a lot of hard work in the backline and spreading their experience across a lot of different roles through the day.
“MRHS played hard all day but did it in the right spirits,” explains boys coach Travis Payne, ”They always had a smile on their face and supported each other”
Congratulations to both of our AFL teams and coaches Sam Ranney and Travis Payne. The boys will progress to Albury to take on the winner of their knockout later in the term.
