Sport News

What a great way to finish the Term 1 sporting season. Our 1st VI Volleyball completed an undefeated premiership with a straight-set win whilst at the same time all our Volleyball teams played their part in our first aggregate win since 2005. 16 years is a long time! The mighty Eagles continued to rise with the 1st XVIII AFL Team finishing the season with 4 straight wins after a hard-fought 47-45 win on Friday evening. To cap it off, the 1st XI Cricket Team chased down 195 runs, with Cooper Mackie scoring a memorable century which led his team to victory. 

Congratulations to everyone involved in the College Volleyball Program. Not since the days of Mr Paul Kearney has the Volleyball program been so successful. Mr Adam Knight, in partnership with Mr Scott Minogue has lifted the profile of our Volleyball program after many years of searching for answers. We are very fortunate to have Adam Knight’s passion for Marist College Ashgrove Volleyball. He has established a program worthy of the success they received this year. To witness the 1st VI play every Saturday has been a testament to the development of Volleyball at the College. They won with dignity and worked hard for their victories. The skills displayed by captain Toby Bergh gave an appreciation of what it takes to play at the national level in your chosen sport. 

In our final 2021 1st XI fixture, Cooper Mackie scored a match-defining century in his final cricket match for the College. His innings would be hard-pressed to be beaten, scoring 100 off 103 balls against a St Pat’s team that had a revered bowling line-up competing to win the premiership should they bowl us out for under 195. Cooper came in after losing two quick wickets and steadied the ship that had lost its orientation at other times throughout the season in run chases. It was an awesome innings! Our First XI finished 2nd overall with us placing 3rd in the overall aggregate. A special moment also occurred on Saturday when big brother Darcy Lewis (Year 12) presented his little brother Samuel with his debut 1st XI blue cap. Sam also took two wickets after being called up late on Saturday morning, a wonderful debut for a Year 9 student. 

Our aggregate AFL teams had a clean sweep against St Pat’s which was an excellent way to finish the season in a sport that continues to show evidence of improvement. Four wins in a row by our 1st XVIII was a deserving way to conclude for our boys who advanced their AFL knowledge considerably over the course of the season. Finishing 3rd overall in the AFL aggregate is a massive step forward. Top 3 finishes across all Term 1 sports is a massive achievement for the College but one we are committed to improve upon over the next few years. 

Much planning and preparation go into each season to give every player an opportunity to develop their skills and enjoy the experience of playing sport. Naturally, the boys and their coaches are competitive and we as a College certainly do encourage all team members (players and coaching staff) to be the best they can be and to aim towards taking out premierships or aggregates if on offer. Although winning is not why we participate in sport, there is no shame in proclaiming that we wish to be successful and go for the win if done in the correct manner. At any level in sport, it is ideal for all players, coaches and supporters to take their wins and losses gracefully.

This week is the official start to our rugby and football seasons with trials and training sessions occurring throughout the week with internal trial matches occurring on Saturday. As we all know, the College draws on the support of our parents, staff, old boys and outside friends to fill coaching positions. These people freely give of their time to serve our boys and to give them opportunities to participate and enjoy playing sport. I ask all parents to remember that these good people are here to assist and help your son. Unwarranted nonsense regarding team selections does nothing but put a sour taste in everybody’s mouth. Believe me, in the big scheme of things, it’s not that important. Please be supporters of our coaches throughout the up-coming Term 2 Sports rugby and football season. 

Individual Achievements

Congratulations to Jackson Grounds Jackson who made the Met North Open schoolboys baseball team. His team went undefeated throughout the tournament and took the Gold Medal in the final. As a result, Jackson has been selected for the Queensland School Sport 14-18 year Baseball state team. Unfortunately, Jackson won’t be able to compete at the Nationals this year due to the decision from School Sport Australia to cancel all 2021 School Sport Australia National Championships. The Board considered that running Championships in 2021 was not viable because of the ongoing volatility caused by COVID-19.

AFL

1st XVIII vs St Patrick's College

The 1st XVIII held onto a gutsy two-point win against St Patrick's College at Sandgate AFC on Friday afternoon. 

After hitting the lead early with four straight goals in the first quarter the boys looked determined to play a solid game of footy. Excellent performances from Mason Houlihan in the middle and Sean O’Hara on the wing meant we had the ball played in our forward line for most of the first half. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to consolidate with goals as the boys kicked 1 goal, 4 points. 

St Pats came back at us hard kicking four goals in the third quarter taking a four-point lead at 3 quarter time.  The backline was strong in the final term keeping St Pat’s goalless, while we were able to seal the winner thanks to Ned Rosenbrock’s long-range six-pointer from just inside the 50m arc. It was a great way to finish the year with four straight wins. 

Best players: Mason Houlihan, Ned Rosenbrock, Sean O’Hara, Dwayne Ludwick, Aidan O’Connell. 

Goalkickers: Mason Houlihan 2, Cooper Thomas, Jackson Grounds, Dwayne Ludwick, Ned Rosenbrock 1.

Intermediates 8/9s vs St Patrick's College

An excellent team effort from the 8/9s team to finish the season with a comprehensive victory over St Patrick's College. Each quarter we scored 3 or 4 goals and showed vast improvement from their first game of the season. Forwards Jackson Williams and James Milner were instrumental to the win and a constant threat on the scoreboard. Onballers Caughley, Cournane and Harper were tireless and covered vast amounts of ground over the big Sandgate oval. Highlights of the game were all the Harry's scoring a goal (Kemp, Laing & White). While the teamwork and bonding with new boarder Harry Laing was outstanding, and special to see as a coach or spectator.

Wingmen Oliver Reeves, Austin Gillett and William Kazzi were constant threats pushing forward. While the backs led by Thomas Howard and Thomas Williams stopped just about everything and were ably supported by Jack Justice, Jacob Keogh, Reuben Downes, Oscar Pittman. Last but not least the utilities, Patrick Jewell, Bailey Scarce and Lachlan Berwick gave great service all over the field. 

Goalkickers - Jackson Williams 5, James Milner 3, Harry Kemp, Patrick Jewell, Harry White, Harry Laing, OliverReeves.  

Best - Jackson Williams, James Milner, Thomas Howard, Benjamin Caughley, Thomas Williams, Cian Cournane, Harry Kemp, Harper Harper, Harry White.

7As vs St Patrick's College

Expectations were high for our last match of the AIC AFL season 2021.  Results of previous rounds suggested that the teams were evenly matched and the victor would be the one who executed the one-percenters. Captain Ewan Wood (Midfield) ably assisted by Lucas Cottam (Centre Half Forward) were up and about. Ewan and Lucas were tasked to conduct the pre-match preparation to ensure the boys were ready to play at their best. 

Ben Hawley, Taj Cook and Isaac Ting (all unavailable) attended the match, in full school uniform, and in support of their teammates. Inspirational. St Pat’s jumped to an early lead and dominated territory and possession. As the game progressed the boys started to find their feet and deep into the second quarter initiated a significant momentum shift. 

Taking advantage of the shift we forged to the front only to be once again reined in by St Pats. With St Pats in front, close to time and seemingly headed toward victory. Harvey Schulz with his trusty left foot, booted home a goal sealing a two-point victory.

Final score MCA 4-1-25 defeated St Patrick’s College Shorncliffe 3-5-23.

7B vs Iona

The game started out very even with both sides showing the want for the footy early on in the game. MCA struggled with stopping the speed of some of the Iona players even though they were a much smaller side which led to many breakthroughs and a couple of first quarter goals. The second quarter was very back and forth with us missing some major opportunities to get some more points on the board. As the second half started Iona really turned up the heat, playing their own game style and coming out of the ruck winning the tap the majority of the time. This put a lot of pressure on our backline to perform and led to three third-quarter goals against. We fought hard to get back into the game, but Iona refused to budge and kept the pressure on throughout the whole game providing a dominant performance. The final score was 1-49 to Iona who proved the better side on the day. 

Cricket Wrap Up

Jacob Kumaru - 1st XI Cricket Captain 2021

The 2021 season was very successful for the 1st XI, finishing 2nd place to Villanova College with five wins and two losses. Some strong individual performances throughout the season allowed us to be so successful with special mentions to batsmen, Cooper Mackie who finished 4th on the top run-scorers list (249 runs at an average of 41.50) and Jakub Bennett who finished 8th (212 runs at 30.29). The bowlers also performed well throughout the season with Jacob Kumaru finishing 2nd on the top wicket-takers list (20 wickets at an average of 10.20) and Baxter White finishing 3rd (14 wickets at 14.57). Unfortunately, losses to Villanova and Iona knocked us off the top spot but notable wins throughout the season will no doubt be memorable for the team; one of the oldest sides to come through in years with 10 boys out of the 11 graduating this year. It was a testament to the boy’s character which allowed us to go so far as a group and develop throughout the season with a special thanks extending to our coaching staff and all those involved in the cricket program for the smooth running of the season.

Swimming Wrap Up

Swimming Captains - Matt Magnussen and Jack Goyen

The AIC Swimming Championships were recently contested with the Marist team turning in outstanding performances to finish in a nail-biting close second place in both the Primary Aggregate (by just 11 points) and the Secondary Aggregate (by 16 points). Congratulations to St Peters Lutheran College (Secondary Champions) and Villanova College (Primary Champions). The Championships were swum in the spirit of sportsmanship, but with a quieter stadium, due to a COVID ban on student spectators. A special thank you to the MCA parents and supporters who were big in numbers and very big on noise. The racing on the day was extremely exciting and some of the major highlights include the Marist swimmers breaking 10 AIC records and 11 MCA records. A sensational effort by the whole team! The Heather Spencer Memorial Award for ‘Grace Under Pressure’ was jointly presented by College Head Swimming Coach James Boyce and past Head MCA Swimming Coach, Lindsay Spencer, to Matt Magnussen for taking the win in the Open 100m backstroke and Jack Goyen for winning the Open 50m Freestyle. Both of these events were amazing races with very close finishes. We are very proud of every swimmer and can’t wait for the 2022 season. St Peters, look out, we are coming for you!

Rugby Union

The season is underway!

A few minor hiccups with sign-on’s has not stopped the enthusiasm of our boys with around 730 boys playing rugby for the College this year.

With such an extraordinary number of boys playing this year there is a large amount of organisation that goes on behind the scenes. We thank all staff involved in the preseason programs over the past few weeks for their efforts and we are now ready to launch into our official season with training and trials starting today.

Are you ready?

• MCA rugby jersey
• BLUE playing shorts
• Mouthguard
• Your OWN water bottle with your name on it – very important!!

All players are expected to be at ALL training & trials this week as well as Saturday. Next week we will have the boys working in squads ahead of the Padua trials on Sat March 27.

Events this week:

• Monday 15 March Student-free day clinic

Yesterday we had over 200 boys from Year 5 to 8 participate in a skills clinic in the morning and the enthusiasm to get into “real” games is high. We thank Mr Michael Broad and his NextGen staff for their assistance in coaching the large number of boys who turned up.

• Training & trials commence this week. All players must be attending and notify their age group coordinators if they are going to be absent for any reason.

I have listed the age group coordinators below so please make contact with them if you have any questions.

MCA RUGBY 2021 AGE COORDINATORS

Year 7 – Damien Nelson                nelsond@marash.qld.edu.au

Year 8 – Peter McIntosh                mcintoshp@marash.qld.edu.au

Year 9 – David Meehan                 meehand@marash.qld.edu.au

Year 10 – David Miles                     milesda@marash.qld.edu.au

Open – Tim Sedgwick                    sedgwickt@marash.qld.edu.au

Saturday 20 March – Internal trials

• All players to arrive at least 30 mins prior to game time OR when your coach has requested
• All students are expected to be in the correct uniform at all times.

Please bring the following: Ashgrove rugby jersey, BLUE playing shorts, and Ashgrove rugby socks.

Please bring a SPARE jersey if you have to assist with team jerseys.

AIC Swimming Update

Cath Geraghty - Swimming Co-Ordinator

My apologies to the swimmers listed below, but I inadvertently left out two relay teams from the list of boys who broke Marist College Ashgrove Swimming Records at the AIC Swimming Championships. Congratulations to the following eight boys:

• Matthew Magnussen, Ryley Leeper, Will Andreas and Jack Goyen – Open 4 x 50m Medley Relay (1:47.33)
• Archer Mellifont, Josh Mason, Ryan O’Toole and Isaac Farrelly – 13 Years 4 x 50m Medley Relay (2:09.67)

Results

AFL Results Round 7

Cricket Results Round 7

Volleyball Results Round 7