As the 44th annual Confraternity Shield football season approaches, McAuley College is preparing their 2024 team.
Biweekly training has commenced under the guidance of David Harris, Michael Colley and Paul McClure.
“Despite travails of heat and rain, our boys are already showing strong determination,” says Mr Colley.
The Confraternity Shield Carnival is a competition that requires an invitation to compete in.
“Even though we were by far the youngest and smallest team at the 2023 carnival, our sportsmanship and performance resulted in an invite back, which speaks volumes about the way in which our players conducted themselves,” says Mr Harris.
“At the moment we don’t have a female team. While we build this team, we have female students playing for other schools. This year, Isabelle Hardy played for Trinity.”
As the class of 2023 graduates, so does that majority of the school’s football team.
“Despite having a younger team this upcoming season, a number of the team have had previous experience at Confraternity. We are fortunate to have four year 10 students who played this year, and we hope that they will be amongst the leaders of the team of 2024,” says Mr McClure.
“Furthermore, we have a couple of year 11 students who are joining the team. We’ve also got some students who are new to the school with prior rugby league experience. We feel that’ll have quite a bit of benefit.”
Mr Harris gives thanks for the support shown last season.
“One of the defining aspects of our 2023 Confraternity campaign was the support of the Scenic Rim community. This was demonstrated with a strong level of sponsorship from local businesses that enabled the team to play in the carnival,” he says.
With the 2024 carnival being held late June in Townsville, the team will again seek the support of local businesses.
Any businesses interested in supporting the team should get in contact with the school.
A trial game will be held mid Term 1, 2024, against St Tommy Moore.
The community is welcome to come and support the teams. More information will be posted on McAuley College’s social media leading up to the match.
