The primary school competition for years 5 and 6 featured schools from across NSW, with St Therese winning several qualifying rounds to progress to the finals in term three.

St Therese also narrowly missed out on making the boys' finals, while St Columbkille's Corrimal also made the final round of regional qualifying in both the boys and girls' competitions at North Dalton Park last week.

In the four-team girls' final qualifying round, St Therese had a 23-point win over St Columbkille's, beat Sydney South qualifiers Illawong Public School by three points and Clemton Park PS by 17 points.

St Therese conceded just two goals in their three wins in a great display.

St Columbkille's girls beat Clemton Park by a point in a thriller and lost narrowly in the other two games.

In the boys' competition, St Therese beat Holy Family, Menai 5.5 (35) to 1.1 (7) and then, in a re-match of their Illawarra regional final, beat St Columbkille's 2.1 (13) to 1.2 (7).

St Therese were beaten by Lilli Pilli PS in their final game, with the Sydney school advancing to the Swans' Zone Finals.

St Columbkille's boys won one of their three games, beating Holy Family, Menai, 4.5 (29) to 1.1 (7).

The girls from St Therese PS and boys from Lilli Pilli PS will now play in the Zone Finals at the SCG next Tuesday.

The Paul Kelly Cup featured 70 Illawarra and South Coast teams playing off before regional finals last month involving the top 11 boys' teams and eight girls' teams, representing 15 schools.

The annual competition is named after Sydney Swans legend Paul Kelly and involves regional playoffs hosted by a number of associations, including Wollongong, which is a strong growth area for AFL.

Junior AFL is played in the Illawarra and South Coast on Sundays from Auskick under 9s to under 17s.