Warriors in touch

(L-R) SBLT Jo Adams, SGT Carol Milland (Army) and WOFF Kim Samin at the National Touch League championships in Coffs Harbour. Kim did all pre-tournament administration for Defence participants with assistance from Jo. Photo by MAJ Michelle Breen.

By WOFF Terry Connor

The ADF Touch Association (ADFTA) recently competed at Australia’s premier touch event — the National Touch League Championships in Coffs Harbour.

The ADFTA took four ‘Defence Warrior’ teams (a men’s over 30s, 35s, 40s and 50s) to this world-class event, taking on teams from all over Australia, including the very strong franchises from NSW and QLD.

All three services and APS were represented in the squads though numbers were down on last year.

All players met at RAAF Williamtown for a very limited two-day training camp on March 5-6 before moving up to Coffs Harbour for the actual tournament from March 7-10.

Although none of the four teams made it close to getting into the finals, all performed admirably given limited overall fitness, training and skills in comparison to the big gun teams from the main franchises out of QLD and NSW.

The Gold Coast Sharks had easily the best performing sides at the event, making four of the five grand finals and winning two championships.

ADFTA had approximately 65 members on the tour, including a dedicated tour manager and two medical support staff.

With not enough numbers to field a women’s team, four Warrior female players were offered up to other teams as pool players.

Former Australian and Northern Eagles rugby league player Cliff Lyons, showed he had lost none of his silky ball skills with a dominant display in the men’s over-40 division. This was fairly typical of the standard of touch throughout all the divisions.

Although outplayed during the early part of the tournament, Warriors teams improved noticeably as the competition wore on. Coaches agreed that given the right balance in retaining a core of experienced players, regular exposure to top level touch and the ‘blooding’ of a number of rookies, the Warriors will be on the improve at next year’s carnival.

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