Diocesan Basketball

On Thursday 30 August, four McCarthy teams were involved in the Diocesan trials. The boys' Year 7/8, girls' 7/8, girls' 9/10 and boys' 9/10 were all successful in winning their divisions against other schools in the Diocese. All teams played some great basketball with the results of hard training evident. There were some big wins and a few very close games, but all teams went through undefeated. The Year 9/10 boys' team had a very tense game last up defeating O’Connor at Armidale 11-10. A big thank you to Matt Hobson, Tony Higgins, Paul Hobson, Jason Kennedy, Josie Chick and Emma Higgins for coaching and training the team throughout the term. All teams have now qualified for the NSWCCC Year 7-10 Basketball Championships in Penrith on November 11-13. Also thank you to all the students and some parents from McCarthy who refereed several games throughout the day. Thank you to Mrs Pat Hobson for her help in preparation for the day, Mr Damian Kenniff and Mrs Ashleigh Jones who assisted on the day.

Teams:

Year 7/8 Girls - Lilly Bruyn, Breanna Luckey, Anika Higgins, Mia Kennedy, Zoe Rickard, Aleisha Young, Mia Darcy, Portia McGarrity, Georgia Sheppard and Erin Hansen.

Year 9/10 Girls - Anika Earsman, Isla O'Reilly, Ruby Murphy, Grace Whale, Daisy George, Zoe Rickard, Tanisha McKinnon and Bianca Watson.

Year 7/8 Boys - Thomas Littlejohns, Jack Smith, William Berton, Ryan Sing, Thomas Rickard, Ryan Lowe, Leo Berman, Wyatt Allen, Jim Zell and Ethan Lee.

Year 9/10 Boys - Alex Groth, Darcy Walker, Archie Cruickshank, Thomas Sheppard, Noah Dunnill, Jake Larkham, Kody Miller, Cameron Holton and Julian Fuller.

Girls' League Tag

On Wednesday 29 August, the Open and Junior League Tag teams competed in the North-West Finals at Bingara. The three teams had some really good results. The Juniors won three and drew two games to finish 3rd in the Under 14 division, whilst the Open Girls' White team won three out of their five games to also finish 3rd. The Senior Blue team lost narrowly to Holy Trinity of Inverell but won four games finishing 2nd in their division.

All girls represented the College with pride showing great sportsmanship and behaviour on the day. Thank you to Mrs Tanya Laird for her coaching and the effort of everyone involved.

Teams:

Junior Girls - Tomi Gavin, Monique Corbett, Georgia Simm, Caitlin Downey, Georgia Sheppard, Annalise Tighe, Chloe Haworth, Georgia Goodwin, Breanna Luckey, Mia Kennedy, Ella Mitchell and Erin Hansen.

Senior Girls - Caitlin Ross, Macy Gillies, Sophie Corbett, Mackenzie Alderson, Phoebe Porter, Skyler Dowden, Holly Bynge, Annabelle Pegus, Madison Roach, Roma Bernardo, Jessie O'Mally, Jasmine Shumack, Jada Taylor, Amika Earsman, Lucy Cotton, Sienna O'Mally, Kealy Lett, Daisy George, Alina Swan, Phoebe McLoughlin, Laura Robertson, Abbegale Ryan, Grace Salter and Madison Sharp.

Friday Night Rugby Grand Finals

On Friday August 31, the Under 14 White team played against Farrer Agricultural High School at Farrer in the Rugby Union grand final. A brilliant performance saw the boys prevail six tries to nil in a comprehensive win. Each player should be proud of their efforts and the hard training throughout the year helped the boys put in a dominant performance. The most pleasing aspect of the game was the great defence shown by the boys in keeping the opposition scoreless. During the second half, Cameron Smith scored a great individual try and Bailey Betts finished the game off with a smart try. Well done to Mr Bernie Williams who coached and helped build a really good squad of players who showed great teamwork.

Team: Luke Tongue, Lindsay Maxworthy, Bradyn Hamilton, Bailey Betts, Cameron Smith, Campbell Thomspon, Parker Constable, Edward Williams, Benjamin Chick, Samuel Anderson, Dustin Kelly, James Ferguson, Blake Hutchinson, Sebastian Lawler, Blake Davison and Mitchell Cannon.

The Under 16 boys played a semi-final at Magpies at the same time as the Under 14s, also against Farrer. In a very close game, the boys went down by 7 points against a very strong Farrer team.

Remember the 16s

Coach Boone: It's all right. We're in a fight. You boys are doing all that you can do. Anybody can see that. Win or lose... We gonna walk out of this stadium tonight with our heads held high. Do your best. That's all anybody can ask for.

Big Ju: No, it ain't Coach. With all due respect, uh, you demanded more of us. You demanded perfection. Now, I ain't saying that I'm perfect, 'cause I'm not. And I ain't gonna never be. None of us are. But we have won every single game we have played till now. So this team is perfect. We stepped out on that field that way tonight. And, uh, if it's all the same to you, Coach Boone, that's how we want to leave it.

Inspired by the above sentiment from Remember the Titans, the Under 16s Rugby team capped off a wonderful season with a gritty and gutsy grand final victory because of a ‘perfect’ team performance.

As they have all year, the team faced a much larger opposition in the form of a combined Quirindi/Barraba squad that had challenged them each time they met.

From the outset McCarthy found themselves under relentless pressure but a calm resolve and solid technique at the breakdown enabled the team to halt the constant onslaught and score the first points through a penalty goal to Nick Pannowitz.

In quick succession, the opposition scored and converted two tries to have McCarthy trailing 14-3 with a few minutes to half time. In one last desperate surge, man of the match, Liam Ball drove across the line to lift the score to 14-10 at the break.

Buoyed by the late half resurgence the team lifted in intensity and attacked the opposition line with ferocity. The forward pack was heroic in its work rate led by the dynamic breakaways Tom Croake and Tom Ferguson who kept the team in the game through their defence and powerful running. They were ably supported by the ever consistent Dave Murrie (who scored a crucial try) and Bailey Rock who never shirked a tough assignment when it came to picking and driving against the behemoths on the other side. Much of the heavy work was done by the big men of the team: Tom Lange, Luke Wallace, Luke Murphy, Nick Hannon, Jaydon Marshall, Harrison George and coming up from the under 14s, Rohan O’Reilly.

Taking advantage of the forward drive achieved by the pack was the skipper, Liam Ball, who scored two more tries in quick succession – one a charge down from a scrum, the other a powerful snipe down the blind side. His work was supported by a back line that had few opportunities in attack but worked hard in defence to shut down opposition raids. In the unfamiliar position of fly-half, Zeus Souter made precious metres on the edge of the ruck, forcing their heavy forwards to retreat and giving us momentum down the field. Bailey Young and Cam Lane controlled the centre of the field while the back three of Hamish Sparke, Alex Bromham and Nick Pannowitz worked in unison with Will Lake to nullify the Quirindi kicking game. Early in the second half our main points scorer for the year, Pannowitz, came off injured forcing Sparke to full back who deputised admirably in the high pressure moments.

Leading 27-14 with minutes to go it appeared the McCarthy had the trophy in their hands but someone forgot to tell the opposition who scored and made it 27-21 with a minute to play. With time up and the ball in play, the Quirindi/Barraba lads threw themselves remorselessly at our line only to be foiled by last ditch defence. But with over twenty phases of play the opposition finally cracked the stripe wide out to make the score 27-26. Everyone held their breath as the kicker lined up and swung, only to miss sending the McCarthy boys and supporters into a moment of ecstasy.

A perfect season had been achieved by a perfect team performance.

Team: Cameron Lane, Jaiden Marshall, Hamish Sparke, Nicholas Hannan, Thomas Croake, Nicholas Pannowitz, Bailey Jamieson, Bailey Rock, Owen Bennett, Ethan Russell, Zeus Souter, Thomas Lange, David Murrie, Harrison George, William Lake, Luke Murphy, Bailey Young, Tom Ferguson, Liam Ball, Corey Aitken, Alex Broomham, Oscar Dietrich and Reef Lawler.

Mr Mick Larkin

Year 7/8 All Schools Touch North-West

On Thursday 6 September, two boys te

McCarthy Parents Association