Bill Turner Cup - Day 1

Girls Tournament

Maribyrnong College has put on a goalscoring masterclass to progress to the Bill Turner Trophy Round of 16.

A Leyla Hussein hat-trick sparked a dominant 7-0 win over Mudgee’s St Matthew’s at Albury’s Festival of Football at Jelbart Park.

Alana Hartinger, Ella Lee, Mia Crawford and Alexis Pantazopoulos also found the back of the net in a superb team effort.

Hussein scored the pick of the goals with an ambitious free kick that sailed over the St Matthew’s goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Maribyrnong was five goals to the good at half-time before taking the foot of the pedal in the second half.

The Melbourne-based sports academy will now face Griffith’s Marian College in the next round for a chance to go to Newcastle for the tournament finals.

Boys Tournament

Maribyrnong College’s hopes of a second Bill Turner Cup title remain on track.

The Melbourne-based school squeezed past Griffith’s Marian College 1-0.

Winston Ashburner scored the decisive goal in the first half.

Taking the ball in midfield, Ashburner released Dejun Trncic down the left flank, before running onto a return ball

Lucky not to give away a foul for fighting through a defender, he then calmly slotted past the Marian goalkeeper to give his team the lead.

Maribyrnong had the ball in the back of the net in just the second minute of the match, but the goal was ruled out for off-side.

They controlled the majority of the game as Marian struggled to break down a compact midfield and defence, featuring players involved in A-League academies.

 Copy provided with thanks to the Herald Sun

Looking forward to the 2024 Paris Olympics

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games is just under 1 year away and the countdown is on to the start date of the 26th of July 2024 in Paris, France.

The 2020 games in Tokyo were a watershed moment for the Maribyrnong Sports Academy with 5 of our past Students participating in either the Olympic Games or Paralympic Games.  Cyclist Luke Plapp won a bronze medal in the team Pursuit while Paralympian and Table Tennis player Nathan Pellissier won a silver medal in the Men’s team C9-C10 event.  Reba Stewart represented in Taekwondo and Gronya Somerville was a part of the Badminton team.  Connor Metcalfe took part in the football program.  Before Tokyo, MSA had only 1 alumni athlete partake in the games and that was Boxer Ibrahim Bella at the 2012 London Games.

Over the next few weeks, we will look at the different sports here at MSA and tell you the athletes that could be a part of the action in Paris in 2024.

This week we look at Badminton.

MSA Alumni, Gronya Somerville & Jacob Schueler are both genuine chances to make the Australian Olympic Badminton team for Paris 2024.

Jacob and Gronya are current members of the Australian Badminton National Squad. This squad is affectionately known as The Falcons.

What they must do to make the team.

Olympic badminton consists of five events – men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles. Each involves a single-elimination tournament, with the top eight players or pairs seeded. The Badminton World Federation ranking list is used to determine qualification for the Olympic tournament. For singles, 38 competitors are selected. For doubles, 16 pairs are selected - BWF News (bwfbadminton.com)

Gronya will be competing for a mixed doubles and ladies doubles spot at the Olympic Games. Jacob will be aiming to compete in the Men’s singles event. They will be competing at World Badminton Federation events all over the world during the lead up to the Olympic Games in order to get their BWF World Rankings as high as possible in order to qualify for the games. 

Key Stats:

Gronya Somerville

Olympic Games – 2020, Commonwealth Games – 2014, 2018, 2022

Current World Rank WD: 68. Current World Rank XD: 51

2023 Yonex US Open – Mixed Quarterfinalist

2023 Mongolia International Challenge – Mixed Winner 

2023 FZ Forza Dutch International – Doubles quarterfinalist, Mixed Winner

2023 Oceania Championships – Doubles Bronze, Mixed Gold 

Jacob Schueler.

Commonwealth Games - 2022

Current World Rank: MS 147, 2019 and 2022 National Singles Champion

Mongolia International Challenge – Round 32

Hangzhou China International Challenge – Round 32

Portugal International Championships = Round 32

2023 Oceania Championships – Singles Bronze

The Score - 010823

Once again our Alumni have been doing their thing in the world of sport. This is how they have been going.

Golf

Stephanie Bunque has finished tied for 8th place in her second LETAS tournament in the space of a week carding an even par score for the 3 days, 10 shots off the winner.  Steph continues to accumulate points towards the order of merit moving up to 26th place with her goal of top 6 and automatic qualification into the European ladies tour next year.  Steph’s next tournament is in Denmark starting on the 31st of July.

Athletics

Celeste Mucci has won both her heat and the final of the 100m Hurdles at the 2023 True Athletics Classic in Leverkusen, Germany. 

Badminton

Gronya Somerville and her Women’s doubles partner were knocked out of the Japan Open in the round of 32.  The Japan Open is on the second tier of Badminton tournaments and attracts the world’s best players and teams.  Gronya now moves onto the Australian Open this week with Jacob Schueler also playing in the men’s singles.

NRLW

The Tigers beat the Sharks 10-0 and MSA Alumni Najvada George was right in the thick of things playing 60 mins in the Lock position for the Tigers. 

AFL

Geelong V Fremantle

Fremantle travelled to Geelong to collect the 4 points with a 7-point victory.  Luke Ryan had 28 disposals, 6 marks and 644 metres gained for the Dockers.

Bulldogs v Giants.

Rhylee West had 11 possessions and kicked a goal in the Bulldogs loss to GWS in Ballarat by 5 points.

Gold Coast Sun v Brisbane Lions.

The Suns beat the Lions by 41 points.  For the Suns Rory Atkins had 28 possessions and 564 metres gained.  Touk Miller 29 disposals, 579 metres gained and 5 tackles.  For the Lions Cam Rainer had 14 disposals and 4 tackles and 4 clearances.

Essendon v Swans.

In Buddy Franklins final game in the AFL, Peter Wright had 8 disposals, 6 marks and kicked 4 goals 1 in the Bomber’s loss to the Swans by 2 points.

Adelaide v Port Adelaide.

Favourites Port Adelaide lost the Showdown by 47 points to the Crows with Zak Butters having 32 possessions, 6 clearances and 518 m gained for the Power.

Richmond v Melbourne

Melbourne beat Richmond by 32 points with Joel Smith having 5 disposals and 3 marks after being subbed on in the 3rd quarter.

West Coast v North Melbourne

North Melbourne lost by 5 points to the Eagles, storming home in the final quarter to nearly win the game.  Paul Curtis had 15 Possessions and kicked 4 goals 1 in the second quarter to nearly carry the Kangaroos over the line.