Messenger Shield 2020 Adelaide college footy season preview for first XVIIII campaign
College footy is back and nine of Adelaide’s top schools are set to battle it out for the Messenger Shield and title of best first XVIII side. See how each team is shaping up ahead of round one.
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School pride, bragging rights and the title of Adelaide’s top first XVIII football side is on the line when the 2020 Messenger Shield season begins this Saturday.
An eight-week season and later than usual start has not dampened the desire of the colleges as they get set to do battle once again.
Will Sacred Heart, Rostrevor or St Peter’s be able to stop Prince Alfred’s charge to a fourth-straight title?
Can Immanuel, Westminster, Pembroke, Scotch or St Michael’s challenge the “big four” schools?
The Messenger has spoken to captains and coaches from each college to see how they are shaping up ahead of round one.
IMMANUEL
Captain: Hugh Stagg
Coach: Troy Clements
Round one: St Peter’s (away)
Clements: “At Immanuel we always pride ourselves on being very competitive and a strong attacking side, we certainly won’t change the style of play that I’ve tried to instil in the boys the last few years. We’ll challenge ourselves to really take it up to the big four schools and then back ourselves to be highly competitive against the sides who we see to be our true peers – the co-ed, middle-range schools. We’ve lost a fair bit of height from last year, that’s something we’ll have to overcome, so we’ll look to hold the ball a bit more and run sides around.”
PRINCE ALFRED
Captain: Luke Pedlar
Coach: Matt Slade
Round one: Rostrevor (away)
Slade: “Coming in (as a new coach) I’ve probably made a few more changes than I would have liked, but we’ve keep a lot of the systems that have been successful. We want to be the hardest working side in the competition, cover the ground with speed and cover more ground than the opposition. That’s a real priority for me, along with dictating the game with physical ascendancy. We’re super excited and just happy to have footy back, especially for those Year 12 boys who are in their final season of school footy.”
PEMBROKE
Captain: Joshua Sims
Coach: Raymond Billing
Round one: Scotch (home)
Sims: “We are really excited and looking forward to the season starting. PAC, along with Sacred Heart and Rostrevor are always the teams to beat. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, a lot of effort and good team bonding to beat them, but we’ll give it a good crack.”
ROSTREVOR
Captain: Matthew Dnistriansky
Coach: James Allan
Round one: Prince Alfred (home)
Dnistiansky: “I dislocated my shoulder during a game last weekend with Norwood (under-18) and had a reconstruction, so I’ll be out for six months won’t be playing this year. But I’ll be involved in a lot of off-field stuff with leadership. We’ve got a lot of youth and exuberance, so it’ll be about putting up a good fight. It’s about representing the red and black and taking pride in the jumper.”
SACRED HEART
Captain: Darcy Gluyas
Coach: Jon Symonds
Round one: St Michael’s
Symonds: “In this particular season it’s really difficult to know where you’re positioned and where the opposition is at until you start playing. We go in a little bit unknown but we’re confident we’ve done the work fitness-wise and now we just have to see if everything we’ve worked on stands up in the heat of battle. I think we’ll be a very different side and a younger side than last year. If we can get some early momentum we think we can have a season equally as successful as last year.”
SCOTCH
Captains: Hugo and Ned Walter
Coach: Nathan Eagleton
Round one: Pembroke
Eagleton: “To be able to get eight games up in the school program is pretty exciting. We have quite a strong group of Year 11s and we’ll probably have more Year 11s playing Saturday than Year 12s. But I think this group is up for the challenge, both against the other co-ed schools as well as the bigger sides like St Peter’s and PAC. It’s going to be good to just get back out there and see how the lads go on Saturday against Pembroke.”
ST MICHAEL’S
Captain: Zac Buck
Coach: Mark Mickan
Round one: Sacred Heart (home)
Buck: “It’s been a lot different this year (with the COVID-19 break) but we are really looking forward to it. Brett Ebert is on board this year as an assistant coach which is really exciting for us. We have really changed our game plan this year, we are looking to move the ball quickly and we’ve got a lot of new players and natural leaders so we are excited to see where that leads us this year.”
ST PETER’S
Captain: James Higgins
Coach: Sam Elliott
Round one: Immanuel (home)
Higgins: “We’ve been waiting a long time (for the season to start) and it’s finally here which is good. Captaining the team means a lot. I’ve been at the school for a while and I’ve always looked up to the boys who were playing and especially captains in the past. I’m hoping to fulfil the role as best as I can. We like to play pretty fast, aggressive football and really take it on. We’ve got a lot of speed and skill which hopefully we can use.”
WESTMINSTER
Captain: Harvey Bock
Coach: Tim Weatherald
Round one: Prince Alfred reserves side (away)
Bock: “Everyone is really keen to finally hit the park and play. We have a new coach with Tim Weatherald and he’s been really professional and given us a new aspect with how to play with different tactics. It’s about sticking to the fundamentals and he (Weatherald) has given us a bit more structure. Hopefully we can avoid some injuries but I reckon we can match it with the bigger schools if we put our best foot forward on the day.”
