Sport
19 July, 2023
League and touch football triumph
Caboolture’s Marley Findlay had a busy and productive time playing representative sport in the school holidays, as he competed in two rugby league events and a touch football event.
Marley’s highlight was scoring the winning try in a grand final at the Queensland Touch Football-run Junior State Cup in Rockhampton, after he also had success in the rugby league carnivals.
Playing at five-eighth, Marley was in the Caboolture Snakes U13 rugby league team which won all five of its matches in the Nate Myles Cup in Cairns.
Caboolture’s U13s defeated Moranbah, Tully, Edmonton, North Thuringowa and Malanda, but the team missed out on the finals as there were several other teams which were also undefeated in the round-robin part of the carnival.
Marley went on to play for two Sunshine Coast Falcons U13 rugby league teams in the Rebel Sport Development Series at Bundaberg, having been called up to help fill a player shortage in one of the teams.
With the Falcons playing against teams from Bundaberg, Fraser Coast, Central Highlands and Rockhampton, Marley lined up at five-eighth for Falcons White which won one of its four games. He played at centre and had more success as he helped make up the numbers for Falcons Black, with three wins from as many matches.
Having scored one try at Bundaberg, Marley went on to score eight tries for the Caboolture U14 boys in the Junior State Cup.
Caboolture’s U14s had back-to-back wins and back-to-back draws, before winning their semi-final and grand final.
Marley scored two tries in Caboolture’s 3-2 win over Ipswich in the semi-final, before scoring the match-winner in the decider as Caboolture edged out Rockhampton Black 8-7.
Both the semi-final and grand final were tied at full-time, and so the teams were reduced from six to four players per side for two minutes of extra time.
After the score was still level following two minutes of extra time in the decider, the teams were reduced to three per side before Marley’s try sealed the deal.
Marley’s next representative commitment will be at Kawana in September as he plays for the Sunshine Coast Pineapples U14 touch team in the annual National Youth Championships.
In his ninth year of rugby league and sixth year of touch football, Marley plays rugby league for one club (Caboolture Snakes) while his touch football commitments involve playing for three different club teams.
On Monday nights he plays for the U14 Taipans junior team at Caboolture Touch, and then on Tuesday nights he plays for Next Gen in the A grade open mixed division, before fronting up for Scorpions in the A grade men’s division on Thursday nights.
