ADFA rams home win in Kapooka 12s

A School of Military Engineering player gets away from her ADFA oponent during the final of the women’s competiton at the Kapooka 12s. Photo by PTE John Welfare

By PTE John Wellfare

IT took the combined might of the ADF to conquer the Kapooka 12s recently, with the ADFA Rams defeating HMAS Cerberus by seven-points in the men’s competition.

ADFA Rams team President Officer Cadet Damian Stubbs said the 26-19 victory was hard earned by the team, which had a history of performing well at the Kapooka 12s.

“Even though we lost our first final by a sizable margin, we had the double chance and came back to win our last three finals,” he said.

“Cerberus finished on top of the ladder after the pool stage so they got a pretty good run through the finals; they got two rounds off.

“We came into the finals having played two more games than them so we were a bit more tired in the legs.

“We knew that we had the playing stocks to beat them, because we play a very running, open game and if we could find enough run in our legs we knew we’d knock them off.”

Best and fairest in the men’s competition went to Corporal Grant Gripske, who played for the Puckapunyal Crows.
In the women’s competition the School of Military Engineering (SME) won what was the first ADF-wide women’s AFL competition after a hard-fought 11-6 victory against ADFA.

SME Coach Captain Bek Honey said the Kapooka 12s was a great place to launch a healthy ADF-wide women’s AFL draw.

“It was great to see the Navy put in a team and ADFA, because without them being there it wouldn’t have been as fantastic as it was. I think we can look forward to them getting stronger and stronger each year and it’ll be harder and harder to beat it.”

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