The St Kilian’s girls were crowned state champions on Thursday after they defeated Auburn Primary School by three points in a thrilling grand final.

“There were tears of joy when the game finished,’’ St Kilian’s principal and team coach Dan Gooch said.

St Kilian’s qualified for the state finals after going through the Sandhurst division carnival and the Loddon Mallee region play-offs undefeated.

“In the state finals there were eight teams from across Victoria,’’ Gooch said.

“We won pool A against three other teams and played Auburn in the final.

“The final was two 15 minute halves and we kicked against a strong wind in the first half and held Auburn to 1.3.

“We kicked a goal early in the second half, but it wasn’t until about the 11-minute mark that we kicked our second goal to hit the front. The ball went up the other end and Auburn kicked a point. We kept the ball in our forward line for the final three minutes.”

Gooch, who was assisted by Brad Hiatt, said about half of the St Kilian’s team played under-12 football each Friday night.

“We took 20 players and there’s a core group of nine or 10 that plays footy on a Friday night and that’s helped their development and skill base,’’ Gooch said.

“The girls who don’t play footy regularly supported the experienced girls really well and showed some great improvement.”

Gooch said for a school of St Kilian’s size to win a state championship in any sporting code was a huge achievement.

“We only have about 280 students at the school and we had to delve into the grade fours to field a team,’’ Gooch said.

“We knew we were playing against bigger schools... but we just focused on everyone playing their role and doing their job.”