Two teams competed for Margaret River Hawks Year 6s and Year 8s in the South West Junior Football Carnival held in Busselton last weekend.
After six gruelling qualifying games, the Year 6 team coached by Steve Cassidy finished with three wins and qualified for the grand final.
On Saturday, they beat Dalyellup with a siren-beating goal by Finn Sunderland to get the day off to a winning start.
They followed this up with a solid performance against Busselton before going down 5.4 (34) to 3.1 (19).
They then bounced back to beat Harvey Brunswick before facing a rematch with Dalyellup in the last game of the day. Dalyellup kicked first with a freshening breeze and had all the play early.
Hawks did peg them back in the second half but the Dalyellup team put a great game together, running out on top 6.4 (40) to 3.0 (18).
Sunday morning started with a second loss to the strong Busselton outfit, which meant the boys had to beat Harvey Brunswick to make the grand final. They did this thanks to a great team effort including three goals to Seb Royle, to finish on 12 points for the carnival in second place behind Busselton.
In the Grand Final, the kids were right in the contest at half time, trailing 18 points to 9 with Finn Sunderland scoring Hawks only goal. Busselton ran out the game stronger however on their home turf. They finished the carnival unbeaten and deserving winners 58 points to Hawks 10. Busselton captain Fletcher Brown was named best player in the final.
The Year 6 players representing Hawks at the carnival were: Taashi Dingey, Archie O'Beirne, Leroy Anderson, Riley Smith, Finn Sunderland, Sebastian Royle, Tomas Cassidy, Logan Payne, Culaan Murray, Jack Zan, Cooper Thompson, Nathaniel Mulvey, Isaac Nettleback, Sawyer Bailey, Xavier Moran, Mackenzie Weeks, Anaru Teddy, Marvin Ferris, Kian Monaghan-Hall and Nicholas Kitis.
The team was coached by Steve Cassidy with help from Will Cassidy and Harvey Fisher, and managed by Renae Cassidy.
