St John's AFL side secure big grand win as they set sights on Canberra clashes

They have now set their sights on the next challenge at the Junior School state finals in Canberra.

Last weekend the boys travelled to Batemans Bay for the regional finals of the AFL Junior School cup. All of the boys were "excited to take the field" according to their coach Aidan Leishman-Johnson after battling weather cancellations for much of the season.

The side's first match of the gala day was against Broulee's Carroll College who they smothered on all sides of the field, walking away with a strong 40-4 victory.

They found their rhythm in their second match against Pambula Beach's Lumen Christi who they dispatched of to the tune of 61-3.

A rematch was then set in the finals against Carroll, where St John's yet again proved to be too strong taking home the South Coast Championship.

Oliver Driscoll, Jalen Rees, Daniel Harris, Dustin Cook, Mitchell Exton, Tyson Walker, Tom Rutkowski, Elliot Camilleri, Noah Hinkley and Daniel Hylton-Cummings were all noted for their strong performances in the weekend's critical matches.

Speaking to Captain Oliver Driscoll and Vice-Captain Daniel Harris, they never expected to win it all heading into the season, and said their hopes weren't initially high.

"When we first started training I didn't actually think we'd be that good, to be honest the talent wasn't the best," Oliver said.

"But when we started playing things just started to click and I realised that we had quite a few athletes on the team, even though they hadn't played AFL before, they quickly picked up the skills."

Only around six of the team members had actually played the sport heading into the season which makes the results they have accomplished that much more impressive.

Last weekend's affairs were made even tougher with several key players out with injury.

"I honestly thought we were going to get pumped," Daniel said. "To end up winning the whole thing was definitely not what we expected heading in."

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