St Albans and Sunshine Harvester Primary Schools took out the ultimate honours when the Programmed Multicultural Schools Cup successfully returned to Whitten Oval for the first time in six years last week.
Over 200 multicultural students from seven schools across the Western region descended on Whitten Oval to partake in the seventh Annual Multicultural Schools Cup carnival.
Both Premiership teams finished runners up last year so it was just reward for the schools’ and students’ perseverance and commitment to the Carnival.
The boys’ competition was highly competitive with plenty of close matches throughout the round-robin stages.
Sunshine Harvester narrowly edged out defending champions St Albans for a place in the Grand Final against Mother of God Primary School before taking out the win 29 points to 15.
The competition was no different in the girls division with multiple games still up for grabs until the dying minutes.
St. Albans were the dominant side in their pool and continued their form in the Grand Final with a comfortable win over Ardeer Primary who played some excellent football throughout the day to finish runners-up.
A new initiative to the Western Bulldogs’ Multicultural Schools Cup this year was the addition of a simulated draft camp in the Club’s Community Sports Hall. Every student participated in the draft camp which tested their height, agility, speed, flexibility and vertical leap and gave them a taste of skills required to be an AFL player.
Participating primary schools in the 2012 carnival were St Albans North, Footscray, Ardeer, Mother of God (Ardeer), Sunshine Harvester, St Albans Primary Schools and Sunshine Christian School who made their Programmed MSP Cup debut.
Sunshine Harvester (boys) and St. Alban’s (girls) will now return to Whitten Oval on Wednesday, October 17, 2012 to represent the Western Bulldogs in AFL Victoria’s State MSP Cup where the Bulldogs are defending champions in the boys division.
The Programmed Multicultural Schools Cup is the culmination of the 2012 AFL Multicultural Schools Program.
The students had been training hard for the tournament throughout the school year with assistance from Victoria University pre-service teachers who help facilitate the Bulldogs Friendly Schools program.
The Bulldogs pride themselves on their engagement and involvement with the multicultural community in Melbourne’s West with the Multicultural Schools Cup continuing to build and foster that relationship through support from the Club’s Multicultural Partner, Programmed and AFL Victoria.
