However Lucy Gale (Port Lincoln/Imperials) and Zoe Joyce (Mid West/Central Eyre) were both chosen in the 2008 SA Academy team which will compete in Adelaide in October at the Catholic Schoolgirls championships.

The Under 17 team worked hard all carnival as a complete 11 player squad with interchanges occurring in all games and them eventually winning the Championship.

It was back to back victories for the Under 17 team who were coached by Joanne Franklin and Trish Prout.Their umpire was Susanne Cave.

The team consisted of Casey Elliott,Letitia Crettenden,Kelsey Weiss,Keeley Mason, Abby Gillings (Eastern Eyre),Kelly Smith, Amelia Dahlitz,Paige Dahlitz,Amesha Meyers (Great Flinders),Emily Yancic and Emily Dennis (Pt. Lincoln).

This team demonstrated maturity beyond their years, working through team decisions and team plays are a complete unit and backing each other all the time. They were an absolute pleasure to coach and a delight to watch play (90% of the time), they did cause a few grey hair moments along the way.

During the minor round they had wins over Onkaparinga 26 / 15, Mt.Lofty 33 / 15, Lower North 34 / 18, Southern 30 / 13, Spencer 26/16, Murray 26/24 in the majority of these games 4 interchange moves were performed at half time so it indicates the skill, concentration, versatility and professionalism of all players involved.

The team lost 2 minor round matches one in a very controversial manner to Northern 18/17 and the undefeated South East 31 / 20.

This had Eyre sitting second needing to play Northern in the semi final. Out to revenge the loss in the minor round the girls were plenty fired up and were going to create “their own destiny”. They won 27 to 19.

The Murray did us a favour and defeated South East in the other semi we were looking forward to having another go at them but it was not to be the Murray it was.

In the final Eyre were dominate in the opening few minutes, the Murray did come back but Eyre held a 4 goal advantage at half time.

Exceptionally accurate shooting some terrific defensive intercepts and great speed, vision and passing through the centre court saw Eyre run out back to back victors 19 to 16.

Worth mentioning that the three goalers in Keeley Mason, Kelly Smith and Letitia Crettenden shot at a team high 91% over the carnival and as individuals all shot around the 85 – 93 % in each game they played a huge effort at a carnival like this and against the quality defenders they played. Can’t go wrong with stats like that.

Casey Elliott, Letitia Crettenden, Abby Gillings (Eastern Eyre/Cleve) and Kelsy Weiss (Eastern Eyre/Rudall) were all chosen in the Under 17 S.A. Academy Team.

Interesting to note that as a region Eyre achieved the most players in the carnival selected teams with 8 representatives across the 3 divisions

Thanks to all the parents who were such a great support all year and to all our wonderful sponsors we have done you proud yet again.