The final round of the inaugural AFLNZ Youth competition took place on Sunday in Auckland and Wellington with some stunning displays of footy across both locations. The competition started all the way back in October and has been a huge success in introducing the game of AFL to new boys and girls in both Auckland and Wellington.
Auckland:
U13 Boys and Youth Girls:
In the last game of the season for the U13 boys and the Youth Girls, the Bulldogs came out on top by only 4 points over the Lions out at Parrs Park in West Auckland. NZ U18 Kahu captain Kayla Paniora had another outstanding game and teamed nicely with young Calum Maloyd who kicked 2 goals.
The U13 player of the season went to Tom Hack of Murrays Bay Intermediate. Tom showed commitment throughout the season and his willingness to learn and develop shone through out on the footy field.
Youth girls player of the season went to Whangaparaoa College student Buell Verkade. In her first ever season of AFL, Buell was the first person to arrive at the Youth competition each week and has grown as an AFL player over the last 10 weeks.
Team: Goals: Behinds: Total: 
6 2 38 
5 4 34
Goals:
Bulldogs: Calum Maloyd 2, Joel Hetherington 1, Luke Buckley 1, Jasmin Paki 1, Kayla Paniora 1.
Lions: Tom Hack 2, Benjamin Rayner 1, , Jaimee Wyatt 1, Kilarney Morey 1.
Player of the day:
Bulldogs: Joel Hetherington
Lions: Meretiana Rapana
U17 Boys:
In one of the closest games in the U17 competition, the Tigers were victorious by only 3 points over the Magpies. For the second week in a row, Northcote College student Lewis Barrow Young put in a man of the match performance by kicking 3 goals for his team.
Dennis Koro and Declan Crann from Green Bay High School were instrumental for the Tigers and kicked 5 goals between them and giving the mighty Tigers a famous come from behind win.
Jacob Tucker from Northcote College was awarded player of the season for the U17 group. His commitment, leadership on and off the field and tenacity out on the field were huge factors in winning the award.
Team: Goals: Behinds: Total: 
8 8 56 
7 11 53
Tigers: D. Koro 3, D. Crann 2, I. Piper 1,K. Bruce 1, J. Dakin 1.
Magpies: L. Barrow Young 3, J. Burri 2, M. Iwashita 1, Braedyn Collins 1.
Player of the day:
Tigers: James Dakin
Magpies: Lewis Barrow-Young
Wellington:
In the last week of the competition saw best efforts from everyone involved. Both teams demonstrated hard work and it paid off in good combinations, and movement down the ground.
The Bulldogs won by 15 points over the Saints as a result of a strong second half, proving that fitness and effort are an important to success.
This wraps up an impressive season of the first ever Youth competition where many players came into the competition with minimal experience and turned it into a strong development of skills and ability.
U13 Player of the season: Douglas McJorrow
U17 Player of the season: Joshua Morgan-Ranui
Team: Goals: Behinds: Total: 7 2 44 
4 5 29
Goals:
Bulldogs: Thomas Woodward 3, Hari Below 1, Bailee Laurenson 1, Douglas McJorrow 1, Munro Short 1
Saints: Ryan Awatere 2, George Hopkins 1, Rico Tuhua 1.
Player of the day:
Bulldogs: Hari Below
Saints: Logan Biggins
Throughout the year, there will be multiple opportunities to play AFL through your School.
- AFL Senior Secondary School Hawks Cup is coming up in Week 8 of term 1 for years 11, 12 and 13 – Chat to your Sports coordinator to enter a team or you can also contact Mick Coultard for support.
- AFL Junior Secondary School Hawks Cup will be held in Term 4 for years 9 and 10. Keep an eye out on the AFLNZ Facebook page for more information closer to the time.
The AFL season will be shown live on TVNZ’s brand new channel ‘Duke‘. If you want to improve your game, make sure you are watching Freeview channel 13 or Sky channel 23 each week.
AFL New Zealand would like to thank everyone involved in the inaugarul season of the Youth competition. To all the players, parents, volunteers and umpires, we couldn’t have done it without you and look forward to bringing you a bigger and better competition when it all starts again later on in 2016.
