Hawks Cup the pathway to greatness

26 Oct, 2016

The Junior Hawks Cup is set to return even bigger and better than ever in 2016.

Open to Year 9 and 10 students, the Junior Hawks Cup is where many players experience their first taste of AFL football in New Zealand. For many players this leads to representing New Zealand in international competition.

The Hawks Cup began in 2009 and is open to both male and female teams with Regional Cluster Tournaments taking place around New Zealand. These culminate in the North Island (23rd November) and South Island Championships (19th November), with school supremacy at stake.

The 2016 regional cluster tournaments will be held throughout during school time, changing its format of previuous years in the after school space

The regional cluster tournaments begin early November with the Franklin Cluster within the Counties Manukau region kicking things off on November 2nd.

The current champions of the Counties Manukau region, Southern Cross Campus, stormed to some big wins in last years regional cluster tournament. In the Auckland/North Harbour region, Northcote College were crowned the Champions are defeating the highly talented St Paul’s College team. Tawa College in the Wellington region, are the holders of the Hawks Cup and will be looking to become back to back champions for the first time.

Schools will have the benefit from both the involvement of AFL New Zealand High Performance coaches and the association of High Performance players also immersing themselves in coaching development . A growing number of members of both the U18 New Zealand Hawks and Kahu team’s are stepping up to coach Junior teams from their schools providing a sustainable pathway.

Local clubs will also play a role in a coaching capacity, with the Hawks Cup competition a vital link in the pathway from participation in school, to participation in Senior AFL.

With a growing number of participants involved in the AFL New Zealand Youth Competition, the pool of Secondary School students playing the sport is growing and with a number of schools already signed on, it is not too late to get a team together and register.

Click here for Registration form Click here to contact Mick Coultard, National Secondary Schools Coordinator, today for further information or call him on 027 2050054. 

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