Cup fever takes over Healesville

By DION TEASDALE
THE AFL Grand Final Tour last week appeared at Healesville Toyota and footy players and fans jumped at the chance to get involved.
Among those making the most of the opportunity to have a photograph taken with the AFL Premiership Cup were the players and coaching staff of Healesville High School’s allgirl football team.
The team, made up of 22 female Healesville High students from Years seven to nine, was celebrating making it last month to the State Secondary School Girls Football semifinals.
Earlier this year the team won the Yarra Group competition, beating schools like Lilydale High, Upper Yarra Secondary, Mooroolbark High and Pembroke.
The team went on to compete in the Eastern Zone competition against larger schools like Canterbury Girls, Ringwood Secondary and Mt Waverley High, and won that as well.
On Thursday, 25 August the team travelled to Spotswood to compete in the state semifinals where they competed against teams from as far afield as Swan Hill and Mentone.
Despite losing two matches in the semifinals, the Healesville High team finished in the top eight teams in the state.
“The girls trained hard throughout the season for each competition, and the result is a very good one for our school,” coach Glenn Powell said.
“The girls are very proud of their result, especially considering they were competing against schools two or three times the size of ours.”
Coach Rob Duke said the team’s performance had produced the best result in the school’s decadelong involvement with allgirl football competitions.
“Healesville High has entered girls’ teams in competition for over eight years and this is the best result we’ve ever had,” Mr Duke said.
“Overall it was a great team effort, and the team was led well by Jess Murty, Sarah D’Arcy and Bianca Bryan.”