Orange juniors shine for Suns at National Youth Touch Football Championships

The Suns team was made up of several players from Orange who made the trip up to the Sunshine Coast.

Coach Andrew Baggio said by all measures the boys exceeded expectations, finishing fourth in their pool before losing their playoff 6-3 to North Queensland Cyclones.

"We had a really good day one and day two, we were undefeated," Baggio said.

"We had a really hard pool for starters, in our pool were really strong teams and the top three teams in that pool all beat each other.

"Everyone had a loss which is fine, and the games were really tight, all the Queensland are so strong and then it came down to our last game but we just didn't have enough tries on the for and against, and we ended up finishing third in our pool.

"We were looking sharp the whole way, we had a pretty good effort."

While touch is played year-round in Queensland, locally it's only played over summer and with winter sport clashes, the team didn't have a run together until the day before the competition began.

"We got together, up in Queensland the day before for a run through and that was really good," Baggio said.

"They sort of overachieved to be honest, they went really well, they tried their guts out.

Competing in the youngest age division on the Sunshine Coast, the under 12s girl's Suns team were keen to soak up every second of the carnival.

Assistant coach Virginia Baggio said it was an incredible opportunity for the young players to compete against some of the best in the country.

Coming in off their Junior Regional Cup win earlier this year, Baggio said the side felt good heading to Queensland.

"The girls came sixth overall, they had four big days of touch and had to play full games, which was new to them," Baggio said.

"Normally they play 25-minute touchdown turnaround, but this time they played 20 minute halves, so longer games, and really hard games.

"They lost one game out of their pool games, but it wasn't enough to put them into the top two because of the other teams and how they won, so we ended up coming sixth overall which is an incredible effort.

"I'm really proud of how gutsy they were and they're just an incredible team, really easy to coach, lots of fun."

The side finished third in their pool before a 3-2 loss to Brisbane Cobras in the playoff.

Baggio said the experience will have a a big impact on the girl's play over the coming season, after being pushed to their limits and really challenged by strong teams.

"It was a really positive experience for them, I know no one likes to lose, but it just wasn't about that," she said.

"It was about what can they gain from it and what can we provide for them as coaches, what can they get out of this experience."

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