Players celebrate another successful AFL Cape York Crusader Cup in Cooktown on 20 March. Photo: Facebook (AFL Cape York).
Students from Hope Vale have lifted the Cooktown Crusader Cup for 2025 after 75 players from across south-eastern Cape York impressed in slippery conditions during the annual showdown on 20 March.
Teams from Cooktown State School, Endeavour Christian College, Rossville State School and Bloomfield River State School lined up beside their Hope Vale counterparts for the competition, which was a precursor for selection in AFL Cape York’s under-12 Crusader teams that will represent Cape York and the Torres Strait on the Sunshine Coast in June.
AFL Cape York game development co-ordinator Matt Mellahn praised students for their efforts on the paddock and said the region had featured heavily in Crusader line-ups over the past few years.
“It was still slippery and a bit muddy by the time the rain cleared and we started playing, but I don’t think the kids minded that at all,” he said.
“We’ve had high representation in our Crusader U12 teams from all those communities in the past, and we’ve traditionally only had a boys team, but this year, we’re taking our first ever girls team away as well; we’ll have 22 boys and 22 girls heading to the Sunshine Coast in early June.”
Hope Vale and Cooktown State School went through the day undefeated and squared off in the final clash of the competition, with the former collecting the silverware with a spirited showing in the 4.3 (27) to 3.3 (21) result.
