The Score 060923

It’s been a big week for our Alumni with the start of the AFLW season and plenty more.  Here’s how they went.

Football

Connor Metcalfe is once again playing with FC St Pauli this season in the Bundesliga 2 competition in Germany.  So far FC St Pauli have drawn their first four matches of the season with Connor receiving a yellow card in the first two games of the season meaning he missed game 3 and started on the bench in game 4.

Barclays Women’s Championship

Polly Doran and her Crystal Palace teammates have started off the season with a 2nd round victory against Birmingham City 2-1.  Polly was on the field for the full 90 minutes.  In the first round of the Championship Crystal Palace had a 1 all draw with Reading. 

Bill Turner Cup

The Bill Turner Cup is a national schools Football Competition played annually.  Congratulations to our U15 Girls team who won the silver medal this year losing the final to Westfields Sports School 5-1, while our boys won the Bronze medal beating St Joesph’s 3-1.

American Football

2023 NCAA Punter of the year Adam Korsak is currently playing Gridiron in the Canadian Football League with professional team the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  Adam wasn’t selected in the NFL draft but did complete rookie minicamps with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The roughriders are currently sitting 3rd in their division with 8 games in the season to go.

NRLW

The West Tigers NRLW team has suffered its 5th loss in a row with Najvada George making 36 tackles in the game against the Titans.  On top of the tackles Najvada ran the ball 118 meters, had 6 missed tackles with 27 receipts of the ball in the 16-4 loss.

Para Table Tennis

Paralympian Nathan Pellissier has claimed more medals, this time at the Japan Para Open.  A silver in the mixed doubles and a Bronze in the Men’s doubles.  Nathan also made the quarter finals of the singles.

Australian Volleyball Super League

MSA Alumni Mikayla Adam and Caitlyn Waterfall are a part of the Victorian Vipers in the Australian Volleyball Super League.

The Vipers are sitting 3rd after 4 rounds with 2 wins and 2 losses with only a couple of games to go in the season.

AFLW

Melbourne v Collingwood

Libby Birch had 5 tackles in a solid defensive effort for the Demons who beat Collingwood by 7 goals.

Geelong v Bulldogs

Georgie Prespakis has started season 2023 the way she finished 2022, in great form.  34 disposals, 11 tackles, 10 clearances and 641 metres gained in the Cats 48- point victory over the Bulldogs who had Jess Fitzgerald with 18 possessions, 5 tackles and 3 clearances.

Hawthorn v Essendon

The Bombers won their match by 19 points with former MSA Hockey Coach Georgia Nanscawen with 21 possessions, 4 tackles and 6 clearances in her debut performance.  Charlotte Baskaran started the season with 14 disposals and 4 tackles.

North. Melbourne v St Kilda

The Kangaroos had a convincing 40-point victory against St Kilda with tackling machine Amy Smith having 8 tackles and 12 disposals in a tagging role against Georgia Petrikios who had 11 possessions.

Brisbane Lions v Richmond

An Injury concern to Monique Conti has soured the Tigers victory.  Monique had 26 disposals, 4 tackles and 8 clearances while Elle McKenzie had 15 possessions, 5 tackles and 325 meters gained.

Sydney v GWS

The Swans hung onto win by 5 points with Aliesha Newman having 8 disposals and kicking 1 goal 1.

Bill Turner Cup

Next week our Maribyrnong College U15 Boys and Girls football teams (Soccer) will make their way up to Newcastle for the Semi Finals and Final of the Bill Turner Cup, the largest football competition for secondary schools in Australia.

Around 850 school teams from NSW, Qld, ACT and Victoria participate each year, with all players 15 years and under.  The comp is a knockout format with early round matches starting in Term 1 each year. Bill Turner valued fitness, fun, fair play and the competition pays tribute to these values.  The Bill Turner Cup (open) is in its 44th year.  The Bill Turner Trophy (girls) is in its 32nd year in 2023.

MSA Football Head coach Adrian Mazzarella says it’s been a fantastic opportunity for our young Football athletes to play at such a high level of Competition. “It’s been a few years waiting and we have been unlucky in previous years, with Covid lockdowns really hurting our chances when competition was cancelled.  In the past few years, we have had trouble getting out of the Victorian pool, but we have done well this year, with both our boys and Girls teams getting through.  It’s a huge achievement for the program and it’s so exciting for the boys and girls going, because they will be playing against the best schools in the country, and it’s the first time in history we have had both boys’ and girls’ teams together in Newcastle for the finals. “

Our Boys team have made it through to the Semi Final by winning their way through the Albury Final 32 competition.  They beat Marion College 1-0 in their first game before defeating St John Paul II College 4-0 in the round of 16.  A quarter final win 2-0 over St Gregory’s has Maribyrnong playing Ipswich Grammar in the Semi Final.  A win in that game will have the boys playing either St Joseph’s Regional or Endeavour Sports in the final, the first time Maribyrnong College will have been in the final since 2012 where they went on to win the Bill Turner Cup that year.

Boys coach Brody Crane praising the effort of his boys in the tournament so far. “ It’s hard to say how the boys might perform next week because they will be coming up against the best sides in the comp from Queensland and New South Wales, and I expect they will be all tough sides. They have done a great job up to now, they are trying to play football the way I think that will help them be successful moving forward.  This team has risen to every challenge thrown at them so far, so hopefully we can keep playing the way we want to play and keep getting results.   “

Our Girls team have had a much easier run through to the semis, they won their lead in matches quite convincingly.  First up their group of 32 match and a 7-0 win against St Matthews Mudgee before a 10 goal plus win over Marian College.  Their quarter final match was also a 10 goal plus win over Holy Spirit, putting the Maribyrnong girls into the semi-final against Kelvin Grove, before a possible final match against either Westfield Sports or Merewether. A Maribyrnong College Girls football team has never made it to the grand final of the Trophy competition.

Coach Mazzarella says his Girls team has been so powerful in the leadup games.    “The girls’ team is extremely strong with very good players getting the chance to play together a lot more often, and they are really starting to gel and play some really exciting football on the pitch.  I think the girls should be confident about how they will perform next week. The Girls have only made the Newcastle stage once before and finished 4th. “ 

The Maribyrnong College girls play their semi-final on Tuesday the 5th of September at 10.30 then our boys play their semi at 1.30pm.  Both teams will then play again on Wednesday the 6th in their final match of the tournament.  A live stream is available for all games out of Newcastle at https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/live-streams.  A subscription to the Herald Sun or Kommunity TV is required.

The Score - 290823

Once again it’s been another big week for our current students and Alumni in so many different sports. This is how they went in the past week.

Athletics

Celeste Mucci can hold her head up high after an amazing World Championships in Budapest.  Celeste qualified from her heat of the 100m Hurdles for the Semi Finals in a time of 12.90.  Celeste was 19th fastest of the 24 who qualified but was unable to get a position in the final 8 after a slow start.  So, while Celeste and her coach Darren Clark have mixed feelings as they return home, their eyes are now fully focused on the 2024 Paris Olympics and trying to improve her personal best time by .06 of a second (40cm) and reach an Olympic Qualifying time of 12.77.  We will keep our eyes on Celeste over the Aussie summer.

Badminton

Gronya Somerville didn’t have the Badminton World Championships she would have been expecting, being knocked out of both the Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles in the round of 64.  Gronya and her partner Kenneth Choo won the first set against their English opponents 24-22 then lost the next two sets 21-15, 21-14, while in the Women’s Doubles, Gronya and Kaitlyn EA lost both sets in a tight encounter against their Scottish opponents 25-23, 21-19.

Cycling

MSA Alumni Lucas Plapp has had a mixed Renewi tour which was held through Belgium and the Netherlands.  Over the 5 stages Lucas finished 116th/11th/55th/139th and 110th to finish 79th overall some 14 minutes and 18 seconds from the winner. 

Taekwondo

We wish the following students all the best as they head over to the World Taekwondo Cadet Championships being held in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Congratulations and Good Luck to Year 9 student Lucas Lai and Year 8 students Lacie Gleeson and Teddy Kaing.

Para Table Tennis

Nathan Pellissier has claimed a gold medal in the Mixed doubles at the Korea Para Open.  Nathan and his partner Lei Lina beat the second Australian combination in the class XD17 Mixed Doubles 3 sets to 1 8-11, 14-12, 11-7, 11-8.  Nathan also made the quarter finals of the Men’s singles and quarter finals of the Men’s doubles.

NRLW

Najvada George and her club the Wests Tigers continue their losing streak too 5 in a row after winning the first 2 matches of the season.  The Tigers went down 48-10 to the Roosters.  Najvada played 48 minutes of the game had 27 tackles for the game with 2 tackle breaks and 1 offload.

AFL

Hawthorn v Fremantle

Luke Ryan had a solid day for the Dockers in their 37-point victory over the Hawks at the MCG.  Luke had 21 disposals, 9 marks and gained 388 metres. 

North Melbourne v Gold Coast Suns

Paul Curtis kicked 2 goals and had 9 possessions in North Melbourne’s 35-point victory over the Gold Coast Suns.  His teammate Kayne Turner 12 disposals, 8 marks and 5 tackles .  Touk Miller tried to get the Suns over the line with some great numbers including 29 disposals, 4 marks, 3 tackles and a goal.

Brisbane v St Kilda

The Lions had a 12-point win over the Saints and were ably assisted by MSA Alumni Cam Rayner who had 14 disposals, 5 marks, 4 tackles and kicked 1 goal 1. 

Geelong v Western Bulldogs

 A big day from Rhylee West helped the Bulldogs get over the line against Geelong at Geelong but it wasn’t enough to grab a finals spot.  Rhylee had 24 disposals, 4 marks and 5 tackles in the 25-point win.

Port Adelaide v Richmond

 Once again Zak Butters dominated for the Power to help them grab a 31-point win over the Tigers and secure 3rd place on the AFL Ladder.  Zak had 30 disposals, 7 marks and 2 tackles to again put his name up for Brownlow votes.

Sydney v Melbourne

Joel Smith helped the Demons take a last round win against Sydney and consolidate 4th place on the AFL Ladder.  Joel had 7 disposals, 3 marks and 5 tackles in the 21-point victory.

So, we have 5 Alumni left in the AFL final series, they are Cam Rayner at Brisbane, Zak Butters at Port Adelaide, Joel Smith at Melbourne, also Jordan Boyd and Josh Honey at Carlton.