By Tania Phillips
After five days and 25 games of football (and a large number of Dagwood Dogs and bacon and egg rolls) Metropolitan West has taken out the Vic Jensen Rugby League Carnival at Sullivan Oval Stanthorpe today (Wednesday 3 July).
Met West defeated Northern 24-12 in the game to decide the top 10-11 years rugby league school region in Queensland.
Since Saturday, more than 150 boys and girls have been in action at the Stanthorpe ground playing, according to host club Stanthorpe Gremlin’s president Roger O’Brien “sensational football”.
O’Brien said he had been surprised at just how good these young players were given their age.
“It was really exciting,” he said.
“We’ve had five games a day and for day five – the finals day – it was pretty much the same set up. We started with game one which was team nine taking on 10 and worked our way through to the final between the top two teams.
“The final was won by Met West over Northern – it was a good game of footy – though I didn’t get much of a chance to see it, we got swamped in the canteen it was cold and blustery.
“But from what I saw and heard it was a really high level of footy and really good to watch.
“And Met West were a great side, I think they went through undefeated for the week.”
Players of the game were Buddy Landers, Met West and Harrison Snell of Northern.
O’Brien joked that he had discovered that “Dagwood Dogs and bacon and egg rolls are the foot of champions if you’re a 10-11 year-old footballer” – though he said it would be a while before he’d want to see either again.
But joking aside the president was full of praise for his club, the volunteers involved in helping put the event on and the whole community.
“No, it was a really good carnival for Stanthorpe Rugby league and the local community,” he said.
“I really want to put out a big thank you to everyone who was involved, everyone who pulled the competition together, the players, families, all the spectators. It was a really well run, really competitive competition. I really want to thank everyone for what they’ve done.
“We will be putting our hands up for more games like this. It’s a huge opportunity for us to showcase what we have here in Stanthorpe and the facilities we have.
“I was really surprised at the level of skill given the age of the players. It’s certainly a major step above the everyday Saturday football games and they are a very select group of 10s and 11s who are playing very good football.”
