The sun did not shine on our Touch Footy teams at the 2013 Victorian Schools Touch Footy Championships on Friday, 3 May. Despite a positive attitude and impressive display of effort, speed and skill by both teams, Gippsland Grammar did not bring the Mixed Title back to Sale this year.

The School sent two teams: A (Logan Deschepper, Ben Howes, Lachlan Buck, Jake Meade, Ben Commins, Jirra Moffatt, Lexie Joyce, Jaz Allman, Monami Tobiyama) and B (Thomas Murphy, Tom Hogben, Josh Dunkley, Brendan Brew, Nick McConville, Al deSteiger, Alysha Bodman, Ellie Anderson, Georgia Dunkley). They played in the Plate Division, and each team played four 20-minute games to qualify for the Grand Final. However, the VicTouch organisers had fixed Team A in the elitist Championship Division, a decision that could not be negotiated. Regardless, our boys fought hard and seemed to play a higher level game than usual. Understandably, Team A players were dissatisfied about their allocation to the Championship Division and their final result, but few could deny that they were pushed to the limits of their ability in facing their challenge, playing against some of the State’s phenomenal elites.

Team B did make the Grand Final in the Plate Division, however, and they too played with all the skill and experience they could source that day. They won 3 straight games out of 4, in two of which they shut out their opponents from Bendigo and Heathdale by 5 and 8 points, respectively. Team B matched up again with the team from Mount Scopus Memorial College, to which we lost in the first game, and were defeated 0 – 7. The results do not explain some of the brilliant offensive and defensive plays that our players performed, nor do they convey the passion and sheer will to gain a try. Some may believe that winning is all that is important; our two teams proved this day that playing to win was everything.

Results can be accessed at the following link: http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?c=1-6692-0-0-0&a=COMPS