Season 1 / 2022 of the Protect Victorian Wheelchair Rugby Cup / Nationals in QLD

Creator: Stephen Tremain | Credit: Stephen Tremain - tremainfocused.com Copyright: © Stephen Tremain 2022

In a big month for wheelchair rugby, we delivered the Grand Final for season 1 of the Protect Victorian Wheelchair Rugby Cup and for the second year running sent two Victorian teams to the National Wheelchair Rugby Championship held in Queensland at the Gold Coast Sports & Leisure Centre from 24-26 June.

The competition was again broadcast live on Kayo and Foxsports into households and pubs across Australia.

This unprecedented coverage of Para Sport is a tribute to the rising popularity of Wheelchair Rugby in Australia.

Our Victoria Protect Thunder performed at a very high level narrowly going down by 1 point in a nail-biting semifinal to Queensland.

In the bronze medal play-off, Victoria Protect Thunder outplayed the New Zealand Wheelblacks 55-40 to take home the Bronze medal.

In Division 2 Melbourne Unicorns had a challenging weekend but were able to trial new lineups and combinations which will only improve our depth going forward. In a heartbreaking fourth-quarter fade, Melbourne lost their final game 41-44 to finish the weekend in fourth place.

With the 3 days of intense competition over it was great for our two Victorian teams to celebrate their achievements and spend some time socialising with their interstate and international comrades at the final function held in Surfers Paradise.

Locally, on 19 June in front of a big crowd at the Boroondara Sports Complex, we congratulated the Melbourne Unicorns on defeating Box Hill 41-23 to win season 1 / 2022 of the Protect Victorian Wheelchair Rugby Cup. Congratulations to Shae Graham for taking out the MVP for the competition.

Thank you to Protect, ETU, Rugby Vic and the Victorian Government for their generous support of wheelchair rugby in Victoria.