Viewpoint

Thank you to all the teachers, coaches and parents who came to support all the students as they progressed through the rounds with a special mention to Mr McGovern and wonderful Old Boy Michael Opoyan who adjudicated for us on the night.

Congratulations to all our public speakers who have participated in the competition this year. They represented the College in the first round at Marcellin College, Randwick and many of them progressed through to the Zone Finals held at Marist College, Kogarah on Friday 7 March.

Year 7 – Zander Brinkmann and Keanu Rudd (Zone Finalist)

Year 8 – Archie Kavanagh and Tommy Smith (Grand Finalist)

Year 9 – Charlie O’Halloran

Year 10 – Ben Camilleri and Indra Shrivastav (Grand Finalists)

Senior – Gabriel Ashmore, Archie Timmins, Christian Hazelton and Michael Hadwen (Zone Finalist)

Water Polo saw a resurgence in numbers, with most students from the newly created Regis team continuing their water polo journey as they transition to the senior school.

We fielded 2 teams in the 13s and our 13A side hit the pool hard with a hard-fought win to open their campaign against Waverley. Over the season they continued to improve and gel as a team and finished with 3 wins and 2 losses.

Congratulations to our Best & Fairest award winner Joe Eisenhauer and Coaches Award recipient Leo Le Guay .

Our 13B side contained mostly boys who were brand new to the sport. It was fantastic to watch them commit themselves to training and to battle through frustrations as they learnt a brand-new sport and all the rules and skills that come with starting something new. With a tough start to the season the boys bounced back to finish with some fabulous displays of water polo skill and a couple of wins too. The team finished with 3 wins and 2 losses.

Congratulations to our Best & Fairest award winner Conor McLoughlin and Coaches Award recipient James Kuiters.

Thank you to old boys Mitch Rutherford for his amazing efforts with both teams and Kent Churcher for his assistance along the way.

Our mighty 15As coached by old boy Joel Smith are a force to be reckoned with. There is so much talent lurking in this team who for the past two season have been playing up a year group. Starting off as predominantly a 14s side they spent term 4 up one grade in the 15Bs where they remained undefeated . In term 1 they were promoted again, now playing 2 grades up they rattled many teams they came up against. The team finished the term 1 combined competition with 3 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss. When these boys hit the opens division other schools better watch out.

Congratulations to our Best & Fairest award winner Jack Mulveney and Coaches Award recipients Kerr Chidgey and Zack Dynon.

Our 16Bs have weathered a lot of change over the past couple of seasons with a change of program coordinators and a lot of movement of boys within the sport. With that said we have a resilient bunch of athletes who under the guidance of Mr Hubbard are proving they have what it takes to bring success. Of all our teams this is the team that has shown the most development and improvement, not as just individuals but as a collective team, working together, supporting each other. They finished the term 1 combined season with 3 wins and 2 losses.

Congratulations to our Best & Fairest award winner Paddy Phillips and Coaches Award recipients Jack Winter and Will Matthews.

Our Opens, a team filled with potential who just took a little while to see and believe it themselves. It may have taken a rousing from our head coach and old boy Jack Rector and the sportsmaster, but the boys responded. Their commitment and attitude at training was one of a team willing to do what was required to be champions. I would like to commend Louie Arrowsmith and Hudson Thompson on their leadership of the boys through this phase.

What cam next was remarkable, the boys produced upset after upset to qualify through to division 1 for the term 1 combined schools’ competition that sees the top 3 GPS sides take on the top 3 CAS sides for the ultimate bragging rights.

The grand final took place at Cranbrook and saw Riverview up against competition minor premiers Newington. Having each beaten each other once in the qualifying and round games, the third game was set to be the decider. With 30s left on the clock Matt Marinovic put the ball in the back of the net and the boys held out one final attack to claim the Premiership!

A special thank you to Fr Tom Renshaw for coming out to support the team on the day.

Congratulations to our award winners as voted by the players and coaches. Best & Fairest Louie Arrowsmith . Contribution to Water Polo Hudson Thompson . Coaches Award David Garcia-Hennessey (special mention for stepping into one of the toughest positions in water polo and performing amazingly, especially in the GF)

To wrap up our fabulous season our teams came together at school where the boys were divided up into mixed teams lead by our opens and versed each other in a round robin circuit. A fantastic way to have boys at all different stages of their water polo journey have fun and enjoy the experience of being part of a growing sporting community in the College.

Before the boys tucked into their BBQ lunch and presentation, we had a chance for our parents to jump in the water and experience what it is like to be a water polo athlete. Well done to all the parents who braved the experience and congratulations on your win over the boys, I lost count of the goals but I’m pretty sure it was something like PARENTS 100 v BOYS 6 .

It has been an outstanding season lead by our senior boys and flowing right down to our under 13s. The coaches and I have enjoyed every moment and are extremely proud of all the boy’s efforts, conduct, and development over the season.

We eagerly look forward to term 4 and it starts back up again!

The 1st VIII won the Major Rennie Trophy with a 5.88 second margin to Shore. They have been the dominant crew this season, remaining unbeaten in schoolboy events, including winning the NSW Schoolboy Eight Championship earlier in the term. The crew has been a fine role model for the rest of the crews with their dedication to training and positive attitude to racing and winning. Their coach, Mr Matthes Curtin is in his fifth season coaching at the College and in this time has coached winning 2nd VIIIs on two occasions and now the 1st VIII twice.

2nd VIII has been working hard to close the gap to Shore all season. On Saturday they adopted a different race plan and produced an outstanding row to lead most of the way before finishing 1.04 seconds off first place in their best performance of the season.

The GPS Fours have been very competitive all season. On Saturday the 2nd IV won the Allan Callaway Trophy and the 3rd IV the Father Thomas Gartlan SJ trophy. The 4th IV finished second and the 1st IV were third, 0.48secs behind second place.

The 3rd VIII and 4th VIII rowed in the 3rd Eight event. The 3rd VIII were second to Shore by 1.17 seconds in a very closely contested race and the 4th VIII were fourth ahead of the other 4th VIII crews in the race.

The Year 10 crews have had a very strong season with all crews winning races. At the Sydney Rowing Club Regatta all crews won their event. The 10.1 and 10.4 crews have been unbeaten this Term, and this continued on Saturday with both crews winning in convincing style, the 10.1 crew by 7.91 seconds and the 10.4 crew by 14.99 seconds. The 10.2 and 10.3 VIIIs both finished second in closely contested races. The 10.2 crew were 1.71 seconds behind the winner and the 10.3, 1.36 seconds behind.

This year’s regatta also had a family aspect, with three sets of brothers winning different events. Henry Burton coxed the 1st VIII, Zac Burton coxed the Year 10.1 VIII and Tommy Burton rowed in the 10.4 VIII. Harry Kelly rowed in the 1st VIII and Jimmy Kelly coxed the 3rd IV, Harrison Davis stroked the 1st VIII and James Davis stroked the 10.1 VIII.

Congratulations to the rowers, coaches and supporters on an a very successful regatta and season.

The 1st VIII, the Year 10. 1 VIII and a Year 11 four now travel to Lake Barrington in Tasmania for the Australian Rowing Championships, competing in the Australian Schoolboy Championship Eighty, the Australian Under 17 Schoolboy Eight and the Australian Championship Schoolboy Four. Results and livestreaming information for the regatta can be found at HERE.

To purchase images of each crew, see HERE .