GPS scorecard: Which Sydney school comes out on top

The elite Sydney boys school with the best sports record can be revealed for the first time after Daily Telegraph analysis across six key sports.

The elite Sydney boys school with the best sports record can be revealed for the first time.

Bragging rights go to Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview, which has amassed more titles than any other member of the prestigious Athletic Association Great Public Schools (AAGPS) since 2000.

But only just.

In fact, Riverview’s hold on top spot is tenuous, with King’s in hot pursuit.

Analysis by The Daily Telegraph of the eight GPS schools across six key sports – rugby, rowing, athletics, basketball, football and cricket – finds that so far this century, 34 titles have been claimed by Riverview, where annual tuition fees start at $32,000.

Riverview’s strengths have been football (soccer) and cricket. It is just two wins ahead of athletics powerhouse The King’s School, which charges $40,000 a year.

Three of this year’s titles are still to be determined. Rugby is one of them. King’s is the defending champion after going undefeated last season.

Shore ($40,000 a year) is the third-best performing school since 2000 with 27 titles, three better than Newington.

Scots is fifth with 19, followed by St Joseph’s (Joeys) on 17.

The King's School at Parramatta won the GPS rugby championship in 2023.

The AAGPS was formed in 1892 and its intense competition has helped shape scores of Olympians and Wallabies.

More than 130 years later, the rivalries are becoming even more fierce as competing institutions battle for supremacy by investing ever-increasing sums into attracting leading coaches and building state-of-the-art training facilities.

Former Riverview headmaster Shane Hogan likened it to a nuclear arms race.

“But I think it’s aspirational. And that’s not a bad thing,” Mr Hogan, who led the now no.1-ranked sports school from 2002 to 2013, told The Telegraph.

Shane Hogan was headmaster of Riverview from 2003 to 2013. Picture: Richard Dobson

Riverview has won five rugby titles this century.

Between 1892 and his arrival, Riverview won five rugby titles. It then won five while Mr Hogan was in charge of the school.

The dramatic improvement was not the result of scholarships for union prodigies. Riverview’s enrolment criteria didn’t change, he said.

“We became a superpower in a decade by employing outstanding coaches,” Mr Hogan said.

It wasn’t all about coaches.

A culture of “near enough is good enough” was done away with and an emphasis was placed on instilling a sense of history and pride in playing for the school.

On the day new students arrived, they were shown the honour boards for sports teams.

“You sit them down and say … you can bring your grandchildren and point to this board and say ‘I was in the team that won’,” Mr Hogan said.

The Telegraph requested interviews with the current leaders of Riverview, King’s and other GPS members.

Former Wallabies captain Phil Kearns told The Telegraph his favourite memory from his three years as AAGPS president (2010-12) was attending the Head of the River regatta – as much because of what was happening on the packed banks as anything else.

“It’s just fantastic – great spirit and great camaraderie – as all the schools have fun trying to outcompete each other in their war cries,” Mr Kearns recalled.

This year’s Head of the River title was won by Joeys, which charges $43,000 a year for day students.

St Joseph’s College are this year’s Head of the River champions.

Shore – traditionally the dominant force in rowing – was well back in second.

Kearns, who attended Newington, said during his stint as AAGPS president “the athletics in particular was something that really impressed me. It is one of the great days of sport.”

Like fellow Wallaby legend Nick Farr-Jones, Kearns never made the Newington first XV.

“But I think the striving and the effort to make that team, to have that as a goal, was important in my development,” Kearns said.

Former Wallaby skipper Phil Kearns runs with ball during the 1995 World Cup.

Kearns in the black & white of Newington College.

“I was a better swimmer at school and was the captain of the swimming team. We competed for the ‘glory’ of the school.

“But it’s not just all about sport. There is a genuine desire from all these schools to create a better human and to enable people to achieve their potential,” he said.

As an example, Kearns recalled having to be part of a play – for the only time in his life.

His role was a mouse in a play called Noah’s Flood.

“At the time you think I’m absolutely outside my comfort zone but I look back on that event quite fondly,” Mr Kearns said.

“What a lot of these schools are trying to teach is to be confident in front of your peers but also comfortable in front of people you don’t particularly know and to build confidence in the whole person, which also contributes to your sporting performance.”

The Telegraph requested interviews with the current leadership of the AAGPS.

The two GPS institutions with the best academic records – Sydney Grammar and state school Sydney Boys High – have four titles each.

The Armidale School, which is the only co-ed GPS member, has had no sports wins since 2000.

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