DHS boys are state champs

By Jacquie Marshall

May 19, 2023

Chase Bartlett, Angus Lawson and Baxter Cowley were all part of the winning Riverina Murray AFL Football team who are now state champions.

Three Deniliquin High School students were part of the Riverina Murray team that recently won the Australian Rules State Championships in Lavington.

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Baxter Cowley, Chase Bartlett and Angus Lawson all travelled to Lavington to compete among 220 players and 10 teams from NSW public high schools.

The boys had a light training on the Monday afternoon, followed by a team dinner in the evening.

The boys were presented with their jumpers and Baxter was announced as the Riverina Murray team captain.

Baxter said he was “surprised but honoured” at be entrusted with such a role.

His role as captain included taking the team warm-ups and doing the coin toss prior to the start of the games.

The boys had a clean sweep of all games played and were named state champions.

Game 1 - Riverina Murray 19.8 (122) def Sydney East 0.1 (1).

Game 2 - Riverina Murray 11.7 (73) def Hunter 2.3 (15).

Game 3 - Riverina Murray 15.11 (101) def Sydney West 0.0 (0).

In their final game, Riverina Murray came up against Riverina Southwest in the grand final.

It was a tight contest, with Riverina Murray winning 8.5 (53) to Southwests 3.4 (22).

Team bonding was impressed on the boys by their coach and paid dividends, with the team combining very well, especially in their later games.

Baxter played mainly in the midfield.

Chase played in the forward line and impressed with his great tackles and second and third efforts.

Angus also played in the forward line and his strong good grabs were a stand out. Both Chase and Angus kicked goals.

As captain, Baxter had the honour of collecting the state champion shield presented by Josh Edwards.

He also announced his teammates as they were presented with their championship medals.

“It was such a good standard of football,” Baxter said.

“We were among very talented footballers and we were able to make some new friends along the way.”

Based on his performance, Baxter has now been selected to play in the NSW Combined High Schools team of 22 to play against Catholic and independent school teams.

These games will be played in Lavington on May 28 and 29 in a round robin format.

There will be Sunday training before play.