Sport News

Marist enjoyed a successful Round 1 of the winter codes last weekend. We kicked off with the Chess on Friday night, and our boys achieved a very strong away win, 12-4. We also won the Senior A and B and the Intermediate A for a good overall afternoon. Thanks to Mr Bull and Mr Humphrys for your leadership of our chess program. On Saturday, we dominated the football with 21 wins and three draws from 27 matches; however, the 1st XI went down in a closer contest than the 3-0 scoreline suggested. Rugby had a strong day as well across the board but were unfortunate to go down 19-15. A slow start meant that Villa had too much of a head start and were unable to run them down at the finish.

Football

Last Saturday saw the commencement of the 2023 AIC football season. Marist had one of the best days, certainly in my time at the College, with 21 wins and two draws from our 27 matches against Villanova. It was certainly a confidence boost for our players and a positive reinforcement for our coaches and staff that we are progressing in the right direction.

Team of the week is shared by a few teams this week: 5C coached by Sam Watts & Michael Gormley won 9-1; 6C coached by Mr Jones won 11-0 (Cooper Chaseling scored four goals); 6D coached by Ms Wilcox won 12-0; 6 White coached by Charlie Wilkinson & Louis Rainbird won 10-2 (Patrick Naude scored five goals); 8C coached by 2022 1st XI captain Ryan Oostenbroek, won 10-0. Other notable individual performances - Matt Stephens (9B) scored five goals; Andreas Specht (10C) scored four goals; and JD Cootes (8B), Sebastian Fallon (5B) and Ben Kelly (2nds) scored hat tricks.

The 1st XI were unfortunate to go down 3-0 at defending premiers Villanova. The tight playing field did our mobile, skilful players no favours, and Villa were able to get the better of us after half-time, running away with the match. A penalty, closely followed by a quality finish from the Villa player, just after halftime was the difference before Villa added a third late, catching us on the counter as we chased the game. The boys learnt a lot from the game and will be better for the experience this week.

This weekend sees Marist travel up the road to play Padua. Please note that younger years' matches will be played at Marist again this week, so check the draw carefully.

Football Program Objectives

Every team aims to be in the top three in their division, and the program aims to be first or second in the aggregate. All First teams strive to be competitive, aiming for a premiership at least every three years.

Every boy develops a love of the sport through their experience at Marist. We provide opportunities for boys to develop skills, represent the College, and play with their friends.

Every boy develops life skills through playing sport. These include being a member of a team (with boys they may not be friends with), setting goals, dealing with adversity (including being dropped, disagreeing with a referee decision), learning how to win with grace and lose with dignity and respect, and challenge ourselves to get out of their comfort zone.

Values

Through sport, we want to teach the boys good habits to ensure they become good men. These include the values of commitment, hard work, loyalty, discipline, sacrifice, and honesty. More detail around what these look like in the football program is available in the football handbook.

Playing Style

As discussed last week, we are developing a coaching curriculum for football that will see continuity of coaching, development as our focus and a playing style that should be identifiable as Marist.

As an overview, these are the principles that we are developing in our program:

To play the ball on the ground as much as possible, this requires both supporting play and good technique.

To play an intelligent passing game; this requires all players to support each other in attack and defence. Keep the ball and play football; do things that make sense.

To play longer balls in response to a movement by a team mate not in the hope of one; then to move and support the ball after the pass.

Players are encouraged with freedom of expression to develop as creative football players, and to try skills without fear of failure.

The object of football is to keep the ball and to score goals through breaking down a defence with pass and skill, not booting it forward and hoping for a mistake.

This will certainly see time to develop as we support our coaches to implement this across our teams and year levels, and it will take longer for our boys to adapt, develop and get confident playing this way but over the coming years we will see hopefully a positive, attack minded, possession based, front foot approach to all of our teams.

Marist Track and Field

Mr Richard Graham – Director of Rugby / Track and Field

Marist College has won 8 successive AIC Track and Field championships.

For ANY students wishing to be involved in the Marist College Track and Field program, Sunday afternoon sessions will begin on Sunday 14 May.

Head Coach, Mr Rob Martin will oversee the start of the College’s preparation as a lead in to the House Carnival and the Track and Field season.

WHEN: Sunday afternoons (May 14 – 1st session)

WHERE: Hayden Oval

TIME: 3:15pm-4:45pm

DRESS CODE: Marist sport clothing

If you have any questions, please contact Mr Richard Graham.

Congratulations

Congratulations to 2022 senior Zack Newsham. 

Zack has been selected to represent Australia at the 2023 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships to be held in Innsbruck-Stubai, Austria from 6-10 June 2023. 

The squad features nine returning athletes and a number of new faces set to attack the spread of 10 races on offer on Austria’s toughest terrain. 

Providing national team representative opportunity for the mountain and trail running communities and an opportunity for emerging talent to gain exposure to international competition, the squad is spearheaded by 2022 rising junior Zack Newsham, who finished in 29th place in his event.

Marist Rugby Union

Mr Richard Graham – Director of Rugby / Track and Field

1st XV - Congratulations

Congratulations to the 1st XV players selected to represent the College in Round 1 of the AIC. The students have worked extremely hard to earn the opportunity and I would like to wish them all the best for their season.

Whilst a lot of work has gone into their on field preparation, I must acknowledge the work they have done off the field to support the other year levels. As a 1st XV squad, the students have wanted to be a part of connecting the Marist rugby union community. As a teacher, coach and parent, their awareness and leadership in this area has been wonderful to see. 

Round 1 vs Villanova

Firstly, thank you to the rugby union coordinators and coaches for there support in getting the teams to the start of competition. A lot of their great work started back in the middle of Term 1.

Congratulations to all the students for their commitment and participation in the Marist rugby union program. After a strong lead in period for the rugby union program, it was a fantastic start to the AIC rugby competition with Marist teams competing in 38 games.

In what was a very competitive day against Villanova, the College won 23 of the 38 games they contested. 

Commitment

One of the disappointing elements of last week was boys missing training, and worse, missing matches. Whilst this has been a small minority, it did surprise me when talking through issues with our coaches and coordinators the number of boys who have been missing. The expectation of the College is that if you have committed to playing a sport it takes priority over everything else. This includes club sport, weekends away, staying at a mate's house, and so on. Similar to the uniform expectations, it is a valuable life lesson to honour a commitment when sometimes there are better options.

Rugby Year Level Coordinators

Rugby Selection Policy

Rugby teams at Marist College will be selected using the following criteria: 

• Ability and skill level
• Attitude
• Attendance at training/competition 
• Team composition 

The selection process is committed to maintaining consistency and fairness. Team changes will only occur based on performances after Round 3 of the AIC season and on a week-to-week basis if there is injury or unavailability. 

The promotion or demotion of players will occur after a meeting is convened by the age group coordinator between the coaches in each specific age group. The coach or age group coordinator will make every effort to give players appropriate and constructive feedback as to the reason for demotion and promotion. 

In relation to a student's selection, the College has a clear grievance policy for students:

• If a parent/guardian wish to discuss any concerns relating to the selection process, they must first contact the Director of Rugby. Under NO circumstances are parents/guardian to make direct contact with the coach of a team about this matter. 

Where possible, the coaches will announce the teams at the first training session each week. The final team lists will be posted on the Marist app each Friday morning once all teams have concluded their training sessions.

Round 1 Results

Chess

Football

Rugby Union

Round 2 Draws

Football

Rugby Union

Year 7-12 House Cross Country Carnival

 The 2023 Senior House Cross Country Carnival will be held on Wednesday during Week 3. Please see below for details.

Date: Wednesday 3 May 2023

Uniform: Students are to wear their house PE uniform

Nominations: Only students who have been nominated through their House will participate.