First off we had the Under 12 Capricornia schoolboys team representing the region up in Townsville in the state championships. Unfortunately no boys were selected in the state team but we had two players selected in the QLD country side. Congratulations to James Fitzgerald and Freddy McKinley and the whole squad on a fantastic carnival.
Tyson Payne was the region's lone participant in the victorious NQ men's side that defeated SQ in a topsy turvy match with NQ holding on to win by a goal.
In Mackay the region showed what they were made of with the men's women's, 14's and barbarian's team all in action against Mackay and Townsville.
The all conquering barbarians proved they only get better with age after winning all three of their matches to take out the over 35's carnival with Mark Green being awarded the player of the carnival.
The Capricornia Gems showed their dominance over Mackay and Townsville with two impressive wins to take out the women's carnival with Laura Jonassen winning the sides player of the carnival and Narelle McIntyre kicking 7 goals for the two games. Well done to Aaron Russell and all the girls with the result!
The Capricornia men's team fought hard in both games but unfortunately went down narrowly to Townsville 7-3-45 to 5-4--34 and to Mackay 9-5-59 to 4-4-28. Despite only having 18 players the team battled till the end. Congratulations to Issac Kielly who won the John Broad Medal with other stand outs being Brent Wood, Nick Payne, Matthew Cameron and Scott Smithwick.
Last but not least the Under 14's were fighting it out for a spot in the CQ Under 14's side. The boys started the carnival off well with a win over Mackay 10-13-73 to 5-3-33. In their last game the boys narrowly went down to Townsville 4-6-30 to 4-3-27. Kane Haua was awarded Capricornia's player of the carnival and the region also had the 8 players selected in the CQ squad.
The players were - Ari Miles (Yeppoon Swans), Daniel Patterson (Yeppoon Swans), Jack Grainger (BITS), Jackson Mangion (BITS), Trent Miller (BITS), Kane Haua (BITS), Fraser Bishop (Gladstone Mudcrabs) and Victor Fitzgerald (Rockhampton Panthers). The boys will go away later this month for a chance to make the QLD side. Well done to the boys, Clint Miles for coaching and to everyone involved in such a great weekend of footy in Mackay.
Also a big thanks to the crew at AFL Mackay for hosting this great carnival and to everyone who made the trip up to Mackay for the long weekend!
If anyone has photos from any of the games throughout the weekend make sure you send them through so we can post them to the wider community.