Two of Queensland’s most popular school sporting carnivals return to Brisbane this year as they get back to normal after the pandemic challenges of recent years.
Rugby league’s Confraternity Carnival and netball’s QISSN competition will be contested in the first week of the June school holidays, largely featuring Catholic schools from across the state.
More than 120 combined rugby league and netball teams are ready for the carnivals, to be hosted by St Laurence’s College (rugby league) and St James’ College (netball).
Brisbane Catholic Education schools will again be well-represented in tournaments that attract teams from Cairns in the north to Mount Isa in the west and south to the likes of Warwick.
Burleigh’s Marymount College will attempt to defend the historic girls’ rugby league title it won when contested for the first time in Mackay last year.
The inaugural girls’ tournament in 2021 had to be cancelled when a Covid lockdown sent teams racing back to their homes from Iona College after two days of play. The QISSN competition had to be cancelled at the same time.
Marymount College defeated St Patrick’s College, Mackay, in last year’s girls’ grand final at Mackay’s main stadium.
Confraternity Carnival will begin just days after the second games in the men’s and women’s State of Origin series.
Former Brisbane Catholic Education students Xavier Coates (Marymount College) and Lindsay Collins (St Joseph’s College, Bracken Ridge) will feature for Queensland in the men’s game.
The pair is among seven former Confro players selected for the Queensland Origin squad.
Aquinas College at Ashmore were Confro originals in 1980 and will again contest the Division 1 competition while the likes of Clairvaux MacKillop College, St Thomas More College, St Columban’s College, Xavier Catholic College, Emmaus College Jimboomba, Trinity College and Mt Maria College will represent Brisbane Catholic Education in Divisions 2 and 3.
The girls’ competition returns for a third year with Marymount trying to extend its unbeaten run stretching back to the games played in 2021 before the lockdown.
Confraternity Carnival begins at Suncorp Stadium on June 25 when host school St Laurence’s College meets Villanova College in a curtain-raiser to the Broncos-Titans NRL match.
The QISSN competition will again include a boys’ division this year along with the girls’ competition renowned for its high skill levels and its quality relationships between teams. It will be held at the State Netball Centre.
Both events begin with a Mass celebrated ahead of the opening day of play.