AIC First XIII rugby league Players to Watch
AIC First XIII rugby league to be spearheaded by five Confraternity Shield representative team selections from Iona, Padua and Marist. See the full list of players to watch here.
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The AIC First XIII rugby league season will start on Saturday featuring five players who made the QISSRL Honorary Boys’ Merit Team following the recent Confraternity Shield.
Round one will see Villanova play Marist College Ashgrove, Iona take on St Laurence’s and St Patrick’s play Padua - all at Villanova College.
In addition, St Peters will host Ambrose Treacy College.
Iona’s Fononga Tuitahi, Ashgrove pair Sean Green and Lachlan McCall and Padua duo Damon Humphrys and Fynn Dalton all made the Confraternity Shield representative team.
EARLIER AIC SPORT COVERAGE
AIC FIRST XV RUGBY TEAM OF THE SEASON
AIC FIRST XI CRICKET TEAM OF THE SEASON
AIC FIRST XVIII FOOTY PLAYERS OF THE SEASON
PLAYERS TO WATCH
PADUA COLLEGE
Watch for Jayden Solien, who had the distinction of making both the News Corp Meninga Cup rugby league and AIC rugby Teams of the Seasons, to impact matches as well from fullback.
Padua have two outstanding league centres, Nate Clark and Jarah Chaseling, while on the edge second rower Olly O’Regan will be dangerous.
IONA COLLEGE
Impressive fullback Tyler Periera, who was top notch earlier in the season playing club football for Wynnum Manly’s representative Under-17s side, can be electric from the back, while Blaze Mohi will be a dangerous utility player.
In attack second rower Matt Doherty will be a handful on the edge, while Levi Hawea and Campbell Rolfe will be carrying the lantern, guiding their team around from halves.
In the middle Fononga Tuitahi, outstanding as an AIC hooker last term, will be a courageous runner with lots of energy.
VILLANOVA COLLEGE
Villanova will have a strong league side where Jackson Connor, a powerful, imposing figure will be at the centre of Villanova’s attack at No. 13.
Surrounding him will be hooker Hudson Bishop, an educated dummy half with a strong defensive game, and rough and tumble prop Sam Binney.
Villa could not be in better hands with Binney holding down either side of the ruck.
Out wide fullback Nate Wallin and centre Max Rakitovszky will be dangerous with the ball.
Both boys showed flare in the AIC rugby competition and will be in their element playing the 13-a-side game where they can get themselves more involved.
ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE
St Patrick’s will be no mugs.
It will all start with Year 11 front rowers Archie Maddocks and the powerful Denzel Savelino, and hooker Jhye Leis.
We love the idea of Leis, a livewire who played wing in the rugby season, having more responsibility and involvement at dummyhalf where he can take advantage of tired bodies by going himself.
Savelino impressed in demanding circumstances for the St Patrick’s First XV rugby side, while Maddocks was a premiership winning prop with the Redcliffe Dolphins Connell Cup side in April.
Maddocks’ football came on in leaps and bounds during his club season, and both he and Savelino also played some good football at the recent Confraternity carnival.
His grandfather was Redcliffe Dolphins 261-game champion Peter Leis, the now deceased Dayboro farmer who played with distinction for Queensland in the 1970s.
And Jhye’s father is former Cowboys NRL player Trent, an outstanding outside back.
One of St Patrick’s best players during the Term 2 rugby season, Riley Horn, will receive the ball from Leis at halfback.
Horn will be eager to make up for lost time after missing last season’s league campaign due to injury.
MARIST COLLEGE ASHGROVE
Marist is one of Australia’s finest traditional nurseries of rugby talent, but it also has a proud rugby league history.
Leading the way this season will be Lachie McCall and Sean Green, both Confraternity Shield merit team selections.
McCall, who made our AIC First XV Team of the Season, will play hooker or No. 13, while Green will play second row or centre.
Green is a strong ball runner with great feet, someone who can play every position on the field. For example last year he played halfback in the 10As.
Green is following the footsteps of his older brother Adam, who was an elite outside back who played As all the way through for Ashgrove before graduating in 2020.
Safe as a bank middle forward Jasper Barry, an inspiring leader in First XV rugby, will be back in his comfort zone playing league.
The icing on the cake for Ashgrove will be having the fleet-a-foot Tom Howard roaming around at fullback.
He brings x-factor, fast feet and acceleration to the middle or the ruck, and raw finishing power wide of the forwards as well.
ST LAURENCE’S COLLEGE
St Laurence’s College’s terrific trio Ben Davis (middle), Harri Armstrong (centre) and Will Kartelo (fullback) will lead the charge for the side this season.
Harri Armstrong is the remarkable, multiskilled young man originally from Wicklow, Ireland, a pretty harbour settlement famous for its 11th century Black Castle ruins.
Since arriving at the college Armstrong has thrown himself into school and sporting life at St Laurence’s.
In Term 1 he was an Australian football ace, in Term 2 he played First XV rugby as a winger, and in Term 3 he will appear in the First XIII league side as a centre.
The school will be well represented with inspiring forward leader Ben Davis playing Firsts for yet another sport after starring in Australian football (term one) and rugby (term two).
Davis was the biggest snub in this year’s Australian Schoolboys team, the headgearing wearing mobile big man performing admirably at the Australian Schools Rugby Championships on the Sunshine Coast for Queensland I.
Similarly to Ashgrove’s Tom Howard and Padua’s Jayden Solien, Will Kartelo possesses that deadly stepping ability which could see him break free multiple times across the season.
He was responsible for one of the most stunning tries in the First XV rugby competition.
ST EDMUND’S COLLEGE
Ipswich is a rugby league heartland and as such, the school’s First XIII will have plenty of Rugby League Ipswich young guns sure to send a ripple across this year’s competition.
Ipswich Jets young gun Harry Vidler will be a player to watch for St Edmund’s. The junior representative had a strong rugby season but will be in his element in the 13-a-side game.
Vidler and Will Tatt are coming off bumper Confraternity Shield showings for the school and will play as edge forwards this season.
Watch for Vidler steaming onto the ball and into contact as well as Tatt’s immense workrate across the park.
Getting the job done in the middle third of the field so that the halves have space to operate will be Norths Tigers gun Jack Breuer, St Edmund’s No. 8 prime mover in the rugby season.
On the wing, watch for the pacy Conrad Browne coming out of his team’s danger zone.
Browne is a finisher who will get himself involved before shifting to the wing to finish off backline movements.
AMBROSE TREACY COLLEGE
The college which has given the Queensland rugby league community Ezra Mam will have Jarrah Clarke-Hooper, Jasper Cowie and Jock Noonan leading the way this season.
Clarke-Hooper possesses an incredible knowledge of the game and an ability to break the line. He is a player to watch for sure!
Fullback Cowie is extremely versatile with the ability to play almost every position in the backline. He is also an outstanding defender with a high work rate.
And centre Noonan, one of the co-captains, adds leadership, hard contact when defending and brave, strong running every time he carries the ball. The prop leads by example.
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