August 21, 2015
The South Burnett Saints AFL team have a week off following their surprise loss in the last round of fixtures games played last weekend.
South Burnett played the Highfields Lions at Kratzke Oval in Highfields.
Unfortunately for the Saints, Highfields halted their unbeaten season at the very last hurdle, downing the South Burnett side 9.11 (65) to 8.8 (56) at the final siren after the Saints had led at every change.
At the end of the third quarter, the Saints were ahead 7.7 (49) to 4.8 (32) but allowed the Lions to put on five goals in the last term.
The narrow loss, while disappointing, made no difference to the 2nd Division competition ladder with the top four spots remaining unchanged: South Burnett (60 points) followed by Dalby and Highfields (48 points) and Chinchilla (44 points).
Highfields would have had to have scored a massive victory over the Saints to claw its way past Dalby on for / against.
South Burnett goals were kicked by Adam Bowater (3), Carl Stevenson (2), Brad Pressnell (2) and Paul Pressnell.
The Minor Semi-Final between 3rd placegetter Highfields and 4th placed Chinchilla and will be played at 12:30pm on Saturday (August 22) at Rockville Oval in Toowoomba (the venue was chosen because Souths finished 3rd in the Division 1 competition).
The Saints will face Dalby in the Major Semi-Final, to be played at Rockville Oval at 12:30pm on August 29 (the venue was chosen because Coolaroo finished 1st in the Division 1 competition).
The winner of the Major Semi-Final will go straight into the Grand Final on September 12, while the loser will play the winner of the Minor Semi-Final on September 5 to determine the other Grand Final spot.
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The season is over for both the fledgling Saints Women’s team – who only joined the competition this year – and the U16s side.
Playing at Goondiwindi, the Saints Women lost 19.16-130 to 2.0-12. Goals were kicked by Angela O’Brien and Natalie Fenton.
Despite some thumping losses, the women finished sixth on ladder, ahead of both Warwick and Lockyer Valley.
The Saints’ U16s also finished sixth.
Highfields proved too strong in their last match of the season, defeating them 11.13 (79) to 6.4 (40).
South Burnett goals were kicked by Lleyton Brown, Chris Janz, Dion Handford, Amos Hicks, Caylan Brown and Ben Brooks.
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Shaleise Law, the former Cherbourg resident who now plays with the South Toowoomba Bombers, has been named as part of the squad training for the U17 Youth Girls State Championships which will be played on October 22-25.
In July, Shaleise was a member of the Senior Queensland Women’s team who defeated NSW/ACT 11-9 (75) to 4-4 (23) in Sydney. She was the top goal kicker for Queensland, booting home four goals.
Last year, she was the first Aussie Rules footballer from the Darling Downs to be selected in an All-Australian side in the Australian Football League talent program.
