DARCY Spinks is carnival bound.
Tooleybuc Manangatang’s gun under 15s full forward will represent New South Wales at the national school-boys carnival in Canberra next month.
The Tooleybuc Central School year nine student has been chosen to play for the NSW under 16 team in Canberra.
The selection was announced following a trial match in Sydney about three weeks ago.
Spinks told The Guardian yesterday he was excited to have the opportunity to represent his state.
“I’ll go out and play as hard as I can and see what happens,” he said.
Tooleybuc School Principal Mel Wait said it was "a fantastic achievement" for Spinks.
"He has been working hard on his footy and has been training for a long time", she said. "He's very dedicated _ it's his first passion".
Wait said the selection was also a first in recent memory for the school.
"It's an amazing achievement for such a small school for someone to be selected in a State football team," she said.
Spinks played for a regional team at the Sydney trial, following trials in Narrandera and Albury.
In a quirk of geography, Spinks is also likely to have a few Victorian fans having trained with the equivalent Victorian squad and being in a Bendigo Pioneers development squad.
But while much of his football is played south of the Murray River, representative rules dictate that he play for New South Wales.
Spinks said his season for the Saints had been "going well" with 44 goals from 9 games.
The Under 15 Saints sit second on the ladder.