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Newtown premiers!

Newtown BreakawaysNo, not the Jets/Bluebags. The Newtown Breakaways are the premiers of the SWAFL for 2004. That's the Sydney Women's Australian Football League.

Newtown beat Western Suburbs 10-12 (72) to 5-3 (33) in the grand final at Wagener Oval, Ashbury, last Saturday week. That's about all I can tell you of the game because the otherwise unexpectedly fine SWAFL website doesn't carry any more information than the final score. No details, no match reports, no congratulatory messages on the forum. And I don't recall seeing any mention in any of the papers, which is a pity. The Breakaways' own website hasn't been updated since June, but at least they have a website.

swafl.org does tell me that Newtown also beat Wests in the 2003 grand final, as indeed they did in 2002 (which I believe was Newtown's inaugural season).

Seven clubs competed in the SWAFL in 2004. Curiously, none of them are from north of the Harbour Bridge. The other five: Balmain, Eastern Suburbs/Uni of NSW, Sydney Uni, UTS/Darlinghurst and Camden.

Congratulations Newtown, let's see the Breakaways make it a four-peat in 2005!