Stanwell Park wins Paul McGregor Shield
The following report was compiled and written by Luke Forshaw from individual reports from the team
On Friday, 29 July, Stanwell Park Public School’s junior football team played against Koonawarra Public School in the final of the Paul McGregor Shield.
The game was played at WIN Stadium, the St George Illawarra Dragons home ground before the Dragons versus Roosters match.
We had to have a training session before the game to stretch and get warmed up. The last three times we had played Koonawarra, they won twice and the other time we drew. But this time we were ready to win. We just knew we had to win.
Five minutes after the training session we were getting ready to go on the field. We won the toss and we chose to receive.
Koonawarra kicked off and we got to about the fifty. With Luke playing dummy-half and Isaac pivot, what could go wrong? It was fifth tackle and Dane took it and ran the ball over the line for a try. We were leading 5-0. Unfortunately Isaac’s attempt at goal missed.
We knew all we had to do was defend and it would come and that was what happened. We kept them out for the six tackles and that gave us another chance at widening the score. However, this time it didn’t happen. Neither of the teams scored a try for the rest of the first half!
In the second half we had to kick off but Koonawarra could not get past our solid defence. With big hits by our forwards Billy, Baden, Benson, Louis and Lachlan, we made some metres. For the next two or three after that it would be the backs’ ball with Tom, Jack and Dane making great runs.
Alexander, with a hard, solid defence made Koonawarra scared. But Alexander wasn’t the only one - the whole team would run up and not let them get past our solid defence.
We continued to make good runs that later saw Dane over the try line for his second. Late in the game, after some more solid defence by the team, Dane took another spectacular run and was over for his hat-trick. The second try was converted by Billy and the third by Dane.
Jack made a great tackle and Louis took a run, got tackled and the whistle was blown. Stanwell Park had won the Shield for a second time. The boys had won 17-0 and we were very happy. Paul McGregor presented us with the shield.
The team members were: Dane Woods, Billy Danzey, Benson Brown, Baden Ashford, Isaac Shaw, Luke Forshaw, Alexander Torday-Smith, Lachlan O’Grady, Louis Vanderstappen, Thomas Lawrence and Jack Brooks.
