From the Head of Sport

Term 2 for St Patrick’s College (SPC) Sport has been jammed packed with Associated Independent Colleges (AIC) Sport. The last few weeks have been especially busy as we have navigated the Cross Country Championships as well as playing the final rounds of the Term 2 Football and Rugby season and of course the ever-popular Back to Shorncliffe Day.

Brisbane Marathon

After a heavy week of running, SPC Cross Country Captain Hamish Page (pictured) backed up on Sunday to run in the Brisbane Marathon. This was his first attempt at the daunting 42km distance. Hamish absolutely blitzed the course and finished with an amazing time of 2 hours 56 minutes. To put that time into perspective, that is running at an average pace of 4 minutes 11 seconds per kilometre. For a first effort that is an amazing time. Well done Hamish, you truly are a Man of Action.

2026 Rugby League Confraternity Carnival

The Queensland Independent Secondary Schools Rugby League (QISSRL) Confraternity tournament is being held at Marist College Ashgrove this year. The SPC team are in Pool B along with St Augustine’s College Cairns, Marymount College – Gold Coast, and Padua College.

The team open their campaign on Monday 29 June with a 12.00pm match-up against Marymount College. This will be followed by a 6.00pm game against St Augustine’s.

The big pool match is on Tuesday 30 June at 11.50am when the boys go up against Northside rivals Padua College. Following the conclusion of the pool stages the team will have a second game on the Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday 1 July is a rest day before the Carnival concludes with finals games on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 July.

All games will be livestreamed but if you can get out to Ashgrove to watch, I know the team would really appreciate any and all support from our students and families. We wish the squad the best of luck in what will be a challenging week of Rugby League action.

For more information, please visit Home - Queensland Independent Secondary Schools Rugby League

AIC Cross Country Championships

During Week 7 our Cross Country Runners took centre stage as the annual AIC Cross Country Championships, which was once again held at our home grounds of Curlew Park. Cross Country is challenging at the best of times, but this year, many of our runners faced the added difficulty of running in the Metropolitan North Championships the day before.

Cross Country Coordinator Mr Steve McCulloch writes:

St Patrick’s College had 18 students represent the College at the Met North Cross Country Championship, held the day before the AIC Championships. Whilst the timing was far from ideal, the schedule provided a strong lead-in to Wednesday’s racing.

After being beaten by a Padua College student at the Met North Championship, Archie McIver (pictured) responded strongly at the AIC Championships, reversing the result from the previous day to win the Year 5 race convincingly. The Year 6 cohort followed with Mikeal Muir (pictured) securing gold, while Isaac Cronin recorded the fourth fastest time of the day for the 3km course.

In the middle years, Ryan Megaw backed up well from the previous day to finish 11th, while Jackson Leslie showed plenty of promise before a back injury impacted his race. The Opens team worked hard together to finish 4th overall, with Lucas Mancini placing 6th over the shorter 5km course. Trent Kearney put in a determined effort, leaving everything out on the course.

While there were strong individual results, improving our overall commitment and depth remains a focus moving forward. The performances of those who trained consistently were evident, reinforcing that continued effort and collective buy-in will be key to future success, with every young man at SPC capable of running well.

Last weekend we hosted Villanova College in the final round of the AIC Term 2 Football and Rugby season. The round was also our annual Back to Shorncliffe day, bringing together past students, current families, and the wider community in a vibrant celebration of tradition and College spirit.

Earlier in the week we experienced very heavy rainfall from Tuesday to Friday. This was on top of several previous weeks of heavy rain. As a result, Curlew Park was literally underwater.

If you had asked me on Friday afternoon if I thought that we would be able to play all Football fixtures I would have said absolutely zero chance. 

As the saying goes however, not all heroes wear capes, and therefore I must acknowledge our Curlew Park Ground Staff (pictured left to right) of Mr Wally Anderson, Mr David Brushfield and Mr Blayd Brown. These three gentlemen were the heroes last week and went above and beyond to get the fields playable. They worked from 5.00am to 5.00pm on Friday pumping water off the fields and were back again at 5.00am Saturday morning, pumping water right up until the first games kicked off at 8:00am.

Without their efforts, no Football matches would have been played, and we owe these three gentlemen a huge thank you. If you are down at Curlew Park over the next few weeks, please make the effort to thank them for their hard work. Despite the weather and less than ideal ground conditions, the day was a great event and showcased our community spirit.

A huge thankyou to all the staff involved who made it a great day. To Mr Darren Wells and the Property and Facilities team for their work on set up and pack down. To the Marketing Office for their assistance in promoting and filming the event and to the Sports staff Support Group and all the coaches and trainers involved. Thank you for making it such an enjoyable day for our families and local community.