St Pats, Albury has won their first ever Paul Kelly Cup defeating Belmont in the boys state final by 20 points on Wednesday.

The school has continued the recent success of southern NSW champions becoming the third school in a row to take home the coveted title.

In just their second Paul Kelly Cup state final, St Pats led from start to finish to claim their maiden Cup in perfect conditions at Blacktown International Sportspark.

“We lost in the semi-final last year so we thought we’d be there abouts this year but to make the final and to win it is sensational,” St Pats coach Tony Hill said.

“This will certainly help with the growth of football. Albury is a very strong football area anyway but it just maintains the interest in AFL.

“I had five Year 5 students here and hopefully they’ll back up again next year and generate the interest in the Year 4 and 5 students going forward.”

The victory was made even more special for the players with Albury-born and former Sydney Swans co-captain Brett Kirk at the event to present St Pats with the Paul Kelly Cup.

“It’s just great for these boys to see somebody from their home town be here and congratulate them,” Hill said.

“Hopefully it will inspire a few boys to go on with their AFL. You never know but one of these boys might be doing the same thing in 20 years time.”

Also at the Paul Kelly Cup state final was a former teammate of Kirk’s, Sydney Swans games-record holder Michael O’Loughlin.

O’Loughlin was on board to present St Pats with their premiership medals and to offer firsthand advice to all the budding AFL juniors.

“It was fantastic, it was great to see the team from Albury come over and win,” O’Loughlin said.

“There were some great kids running around and you can see some of them have really good skills and I look forward to seeing these guys develop and hopefully play at the elite level.”

O’Loughlin said the standard of the Paul Kelly Cup has improved dramatically since the first competition was played in 2001.  

“I remember when the Paul Kelly Cup first started and there were only a few teams,” he said.

“It’s just gotten bigger and better every year and there have actually been some really good AFL players who have come through the Cup (including Sydney Swans’ Kieren Jack).

“Speaking to Paul Kelly himself, he is so proud of this event. You couldn’t ask for a better role model than Paul Kelly and for us we’re very, very lucky that we’re able to be involved in it.

“There were 980 schools which participated this year which is just unbelievable. Compare that to when we first started and AFL is just booming at the moment and I’m so excited it’s gone from strength to strength and will continue to.”

This year’s Paul Kelly Cup was the biggest yet with over 15,000 participants and 980 teams taking part in the boys and girls competitions.

Grand Final
St Pats 5.5 (35) def Belmont 2.3 (15)