St Augustine’s junior footballers commemorated the 25th anniversary of the annual Travis Atkins Memorial match with the traditional game between the club’s two under-14 teams.
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Sixth-ranked St Augustine’s Blue not only won its first game of the Goulburn Murray Junior League’s division one season, but did it against its second-ranked sister side St Augustine’s Yellow, which had lost just two of its eight games before the weekend.
The Atkins match was established in 1999 and only one year has been missed (because of COVID-19), this year again at Northern Oval.
Blue won the game 7.7 (49) to Yellow’s 5.7 (37), with players and parents attending a presentation to explain the event at Hurleys on the Thursday before the game.
Guest speakers were Frank Scopelliti from Victoria Police and Sherry Atkins, sister of Travis, who spoke to the players about the importance of “looking after your mates” and making good decisions prior to getting into vehicles.
St Augustine’s Junior Football Club expressed its thanks to Frank and Sherry for their time to talk to the parents and players.
On game day decorated Kyabram footballer Chris Atkins (Travis Atkins’ brother) spoke to the players pre-game and reinforced the importance of the day — “Look after your mates”.
The Travis Atkins award winner for best player was Cooper Wilson, with the Atkins family voting on the best player of the match.
• Goal-kickers for the game, Blue: Cooper Wilson 2, Henry Millar 2, Sam Bruhn 2, Rhys Parsons. Yellow: Jett Emini 2, Charlie Perkin 2, Flynn Burrows.
· Yellow responded on Saturday with a seven-point win against Shepparton Notre Dame Bears, Hugo Monnich Vo best-on-ground in the win.
He and Jett Emini both kicked two goals in the win, with Sebastian Cleary and Riley Nicholson others to feature.
The Blue under-14 team was brought back to earth with a 16-68 loss to Echuca Green, Ehtan Griener, Cooper Wilson and Henry Millar the best players.
· Kyabram faced top division one under-16 team Shepparton Notre Bears Gold on Sunday and was all square at half-time.
It lost the second and final quarters by a goal apiece, which heavily influenced the final result — an 18-point loss 10.7 (67) to the Bears’ 13.7 (85).
· Tongala’s under-12 team, won its game with Runnymede Rebela by 16 points, but St Augustine’s was beaten by 19 points in its match-up with Echuca Green.
Cade Polson kicked two goals, Xavier Graetz one and Ashton De Pasquale the other for St Augustine’s