Open Team
In our most recent game, the Open team travelled to Graceville to compete against Ipswich Girls Grammar School. This game was a great opportunity to practice our attacking moves and defence on the line, preparing for our two hardest games of the season, which will be played in the next couple of weeks. We started the game strong, keeping the opposition off our try line and trying our moves on their line. At half-time, our Coach, Mr Craig Morrow, gave us all a point to focus on for improvement, as well as a motivational talk. We ended up with a fantastic final score of 15 – 1—scoring in the double digits has not been done for many years in the Open team, and all the girls were so proud of the team’s effort. We are still undefeated, winning against St Peters, St Hilda’s, and Ipswich, and we tied with Brisbane State High School, a great achievement for us as they won the Open Touch Premiership last year.
We have had some challenges throughout the season, including injuries prohibiting some girls from playing. In some games we have only had 10 players, really putting our fitness to the test—although that has not altered our positive attitudes towards the games! Our goal is to keep playing hard, having fun, and improving, especially for our two upcoming games.
Grace Hynes (12L) and Isabelle Pham (12O)
Touch Captains
Senior A Team
The Senior A game against Brisbane State High School took place at O’Grady Park to commence our 2022 QGSSSA Touch season. We faced a gruelling match with many ups and downs; however, we are extremely pleased to say that we came away with a 4 – 2 victory. As many of our teammates were out due to COVID-19, we were overwhelmed by the support of our fellow Grammar sisters who came to our aid and filled in. Another highlight of the season took place when we travelled to the Gold Coast to play St Hilda’s. Although we came away with a loss, the immense unity we discovered during this game was a definite highlight. Zaya Lee (11R) is a talented middle, able to break through any defensive line-up. By doing so, she set up our first try of the game. Our second try was thanks to Macy Brooks (12M) and her courage to dive through the minuscule gaps on St Hilda’s try line. Our team made up of Year 11 and 12 students, truly came together as a result of our dedication and hard work throughout this challenging game.
From our recent game, we know we have much to work on. With the help and guidance of our experienced Coach, Mr Luke Duncan, we know we can significantly improve. We are grateful for Mr Duncan’s dedication and are certain that without him and Mrs Nisbett, this season would not have been possible.
Zaine Mackellar (11W)
Senior B Team
Recently, the Senior B Touch team travelled to the Gold Coast to play against St Hilda’s. The game was both a challenge and an opportunity to try out some of the new moves we had practiced at training. The muddy field made the ball slippery, which proved to be a challenge as we had to be careful with our passes to ensure limited dropped balls. After discussing and learning from our weaknesses in the previous games of the season, as a team, we successfully improved on communication in both defence and attack. We had a great first half scoring five tries, thanks to our fast rucking through the middle, which created gaps for us to score. A highlight of the game was our strong defence, which kept St Hilda’s to just one try. Overall, we played extremely well as a team, finishing the game with a winning score of 8 – 1.
The Senior B Touch team is so excited for the rest of the season, and we look forward to improving our game. We will hopefully be able to implement our new move, a ‘seven’, taught by our Coach, Miss Matisse Black (2020), in future games. If we can continue to improve and play as well as we did last Friday, I do not doubt that we will be able to win the premiership for the third consecutive year!
Anna Madders (12R)
Senior Bii Team
This year, the Senior Bii team had a rocky start to our Touch season with COVID-19 and flooding, leading to many girls being unable to play. For our first game, which was against St Peters, we barely had enough people to play and needed to enlist the help of some other students to field a team. We fought hard but unfortunately didn’t come away with the win.
Our most recent game, against St Hilda’s, also came with its fair share of challenges, from traffic that almost made us miss our game, to having almost no time to warm up. While it also resulted in an unfortunate loss, the girls’ hard work during training has already led to massive improvements on the field.
We are excited to finish this Touch season and hope to come away with some wins. We are looking forward to being able to work as a team and put all our skills learned at training into our games.
Emily Clayton (11L) and Isabel Goodwin (11G)
10A Team
Our second game of the season against St Peters Lutheran College was one of the best for the 10A Touch team. This game was a great learning experience for all the girls, as well as an opportunity to try out some moves that our Coach, Mr Luke Duncan, has taught us. With all the disruptions of COVID-19, our team found it difficult to grow and connect in previous years, but this year we have seen an improvement in the way our team has bonded and learned new skills. At the end of the first half of this game, the girls were eager to get back on the field and continue to play hard to win.
Even though the final score was 2 – 2, the girls gave it their all and played their hearts out. The 10As were very proud of the progress they had made playing together over the last few years and were not discouraged by the results. One of the many highlights of this game was Sarah Williams’ (10W) incredible half-run, which set up a try by picking up the ball and running through the defence. Although the end goal of winning was not met, the girls managed to keep their heads up and prepare for the next game against St Hilda’s. I believe that it was the strong encouragement of the girls on the sidelines, cheering on the girls playing on the field that empowered them all to try their best. Despite the final score being a draw, it is worth noting that St Peters did not go easy on us, and both their defence and attack were amazing and the 10As had to rely on the teamwork and communication that they had been practicing in training.
For the rest of the season, the 10A team is looking forward to our final season before splitting up into senior teams next year. This season is an excellent opportunity to practice new plays and skills for future games, as well as to improve basic skills like passing and rucking. I do not doubt that we can achieve our goals and come out on top if we keep up the hard work and play as well as we have been.
Sienna Pham (10O)
10B Team
Last week, the 10Bs travelled to Graceville to compete in their first official QGSSSA game of the season against Ipswich Girls Grammar School. Although having already played a practice game against Ipswich, we were all still feeling nervous. From the very beginning, the game was close, with each team scoring one try; however, Ipswich were strong competitors and came away with a win, scoring 3 – 1. Even though we finished with a loss, the game proved to be a great opportunity for the team to try out the new skills we practiced at training, as well as continue to encourage one another on and off the field. Shout out to our Captain, Liliana Hazzard (10O), who ran a length of the field to chase the opposition and eventually saved a try. One of the highlights of the evening was the feedback from Ipswich’s coach, commenting on how much we had improved from when we first played to now. Our coach, Mr Edward Retimana, provided us with great insights at half-time, encouraging us to keep our heads held high no matter the score. Overall, our improvement in the space of two weeks and the sportsmanship both teams created led to a highly enjoyable evening.
Erin Row (10G)
9A Team
Last Friday, the 9As travelled to Graceville to compete against Ipswich Girls Grammar School for our sixth round of the season. The game was a great learning experience where we put all our hard work and dedication at training into play. After our pre-game chat with our Coach of two years, Ms Lydia Durkin, we decided our goals for the game were to work on our subset and moves in attack. Even though the opposition came at us with strong attacking up the field, we still managed to achieve our goals by scoring two tries off the subset and another with a rooster on the try line in the first half. Some of the many highlights were in the last few minutes of the game when Cecilia Ragland (9O) scored two tries in a row, running from the halfway mark for both. All the girls played extremely well, and thanks to the encouragement and guidance from our Coach, the final score of the game was 5 – 0. The 9A team is looking forward to the final games of the season against Clayfield College, St Aidan’s, Moreton Bay College, and St Margaret’s, and we wish all other BGGS teams the best of luck.
Zara Himstedt (9L)
9B Team
Last Friday afternoon, the 9Bs travelled to Normanby Rugby League Football Club in Graceville to compete against Ipswich Girls Grammar School. Having missed two games this season, this gave us a great opportunity to try out and improve on a couple of new skills taught by our Coach, Miss Quinn Porceddu (2021). We started with an instant boost of confidence and enthusiasm after the girls on the field effectively worked together to quickly score the first try of the game within the first few minutes. Not long after, IGGS managed to seep through a gap in our defence and score themselves their first try, ending the first half at 4 – 1 to us. During half-time, our team had a chat with our Coach to talk about what we did well and what we could do to improve, so we wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. After hearing those words of motivation, we entered the second half of the game with the determination to increase our leading score. For the rest of the game, we kept up the energy, which in the end, led us to victory with a final score of 7 – 1.
However, it was still a tough game since the IGGS girls delivered both a strong and challenging attack and defence line which required us all to play our best. Hence, this achievement would not have been possible without the immense encouragement and effort put in that afternoon from every single player, both on and off the field. The 9Bs are really excited for what we have left to come this season. We look forward to learning and improving our skills and tactics, such as passing and roosters, so we can play to the best of our abilities to enhance our gameplay. If we continue to play as well as we did last week, then without a doubt, we can end this season with some amazing results!
Kayla Tran (9B)
8A Team
In one of our recent games, the 8A team, travelled to the Gold Coast to compete against St Hilda’s. One of our highlights was winning our first game of the season with a score of 3 – 1. Two tries were made by Sarah Leong (8M), who accomplished this by running from half, with another remarkable try from Eloise O’Connell (8L), who managed to score in the second half of the game, by stepping her way to the try line. These tries gave our team a great confidence boost. This game required a great amount of effort and determination from everyone on the team, which enabled us to win. St Hilda’s proved to be a strong team who were great at attack and defence. However, this encouraged our team to work harder on our attacks by using practiced moves from training. With many motivational speeches from both the Coach and the girls on the sideline, this game provided us with a good opportunity to try out some skills we had learned in the previous training, as well as a great learning experience, which we will consider for the games ahead.
The 8A team is eager to compete for the rest of the season and we look forward to continually learning strategies to improve our games. We had many goals, which we set and achieved during this game. One of these goals was to work well as a team and sufficiently sub-off, which we accomplished. We hope our remaining games for the season are as good as this one.
Sarah Leong (8M)
8B Team
This 2022 8B Touch team has seen the return of many familiar faces from last season as well as welcoming some impressive new talent. Together, the team has developed a cohesive team spirit that encourages and celebrates each other’s achievements while enjoying plenty of laughter together. Our goals this year are to learn new skills and work as a team to grow as individual players as well as a connected team.
Despite the impacts and challenges of COVID-19, rain-flooded Touch fields, and Year 8 camp logistics, the 8B team has had a very successful start to the season. Early season triumphs against St Peters and Brisbane State High School have been encouraging, and enthusiasm amongst the team is running high. Pleasingly, the tries scored in the games so far have been shared across the team providing for regular celebration.
With the threat of further rain this week, the 8B Touch team travelled to Graceville playing fields to face Ipswich Girls Grammar School. Impressive ball skills were observed by our team and tries scored by Shona Langton-Lockton (8G), Poppy McGuire (8E), Trixie Kelly (8E), and Emily Wille (8R) were enough to uphold our 2022 season winning streak.
With such a positive start, 8B looks forward to the rest of the season.
Poppy McGuire (8E)
8Bii Team
The 8bii’s latest touch game was versing St Aidan’s at Shaw Park. Although we did not come away with a win, the team experienced a lot of learning opportunities and saw ways we could improve. Some examples of this are practicing more basics, more defence efforts, having a strong ruck in place, and practicing with speed and agility. These will easily be improved in the following training sessions.
The 8biis have improved tremendously over the season. We have come together as a team, have learned what each person’s strong suits are, and how to utilise them strategically in gameplay. Because many players in our team are new to the sport our Coach, Miss Persia Black (2021), has taught us many game techniques and moves that most of us did not know before starting Touch.
The whole team is very excited to progress with the rest of the season. We look forward to improving our skill levels and hopefully winning more games. Because we are also in a younger year, we are excited to bond with our teammates and have these relationships for many years to come.
7A Team
Last Friday, the 7A Touch team went up against Ipswich Girls Grammar School. Excited, but also nervous, our team tried our hardest throughout the week, training as hard as we could with our coaches and determined to win against Ipswich. Due to the delayed start to the game, the players started to feel nervous. At half-time, the IGGS team was leading 3 – 1, scoring first. We were determined and wanted to continue making improvements in every game. In the second half, we scored two tries but sadly lost to Ipswich 5 – 3. This week we learned how to do double switches, and sweeps, and improved on our half-runs. Both our defence and attack at the line improved immensely and we were able to still have fun while playing on the field and in training. Great job to Ines McKeddie (7G), Calico Cain (7H), and Sophie O’Reilly (7M), for scoring our three tries. Also, great job Blake Driscoll (7H), for the amazing attempts at diving.
It has been a privilege to be in the 7A Touch team, as all players work together and have close friendships outside of Touch.
Annie Lowry (7O)
7B Team
Last Friday the 7Bs, travelled to Graceville and competed against Ipswich Girls Grammar School. This game was an amazing learning opportunity for our team and made us even stronger together on the field. Our coach, Miss Caitlin Brittain (2021), has assisted us in developing these skills which we all used together to win by a striking 9 – 0. The game was phenomenal with our team having 12 players in all, meaning a perfect subset and less confusion on positions. Everybody on the team made a massive effort towards those nine tries, such as brilliant defence, speedy attacks, and loads of team spirit. Girls sprinting through gaps and nearing the grasp of the defenders’ hands as they effortlessly scored tries. Our goals for the 2022 Touch season are most definitely to have fun, be positive, and continue learning about the game of Touch.
Lahaina Ahloo (7L)
7C Team
Congratulations to the 7C team who, after three games, remain undefeated for the Touch season with wins against the 7B team from St Peters, 7B team from IGGS, and the 7C team from St Aidan’s. Our defence is proving to be extremely challenging for the opposition as no team has scored against us.
The entire 7C team is extremely excited for the rest of the season, and we are looking forward to learning more skills and tactics to improve our game from our Coach, Miss Catriona Brown (2021). Our main goals are to work well as a team and to improve our performance on the field. If we continue to play as we did last Friday and work hard in our training sessions, we can all look forward to achieving these goals.
