2025 Peter Mulholland Cup live stream: Hills Sports High School v Central Coast Sports College, Round 1

Hills Sports High School is hoping to lay the foundations of its legacy under a new coach in an opening round Peter Mulholland Cup clash against Central Coast. Watch the match LIVE.

While the focus for some coaches may solely be on winning, that’s not the philosophy of experienced campaigner Joe O’Callaghan.

The highly respected rugby league official has held multiple roles across his 20 years of coaching, including a five-year stint with NRL club South Sydney, with his latest heading up the boys’ rugby program at Hills Sports High School.

O’Callaghan will coach his first game when Hills faces Central Coast Sports College in Round 1 of the Peter Mulholland Cup on Tuesday.

That match will be available live and exclusive on KommunityTV from 2pm.

Joining the western suburbs school in November last year, O’Callaghan has wasted no time in building up the off-field pillars in the hopes of translating that into success this season.

“One of the main things we’ve spoken about since I turned up has been the history of our school,” O’Callaghan said.

“When I turned up in term 4 last year, that part probably worried me a little bit. I felt a vibe, not just with the senior group but also the junior grades, that it wasn’t high on their priority list.

“Rep footy and club footy probably ranked higher and I just wanted to do some work around the cultural piece and legacy of this school. We did a lot of research with the boys around our history and they didn’t even know some of the boys that have graduated from here.

“So we’ve spent a lot of time getting them to understand the history of the program and then getting them to buy into what kind of legacy they want to leave themselves.”

Joe O’Callaghan (right) during his time at the South Sydney Rabbitohs as a player development coach. Picture: Brendan Radke

Evidence of that work was on show as early as this week with O’Callaghan revealing his players had organised their own extra session in the lead-up to their clash with Central.

“The boys are really, really engaged (heading into round 1),” he said.

“They came in on a student free day, so even though that was on school holidays on Tuesday, they actually wanted to train.

“We knocked a really good session off, and that was the boys wanting to do that, so that’s always positive when they’re asking for that.”

And while much of the focus across the pre-season has been around redeveloping the culture, O’Callaghan is under no illusions they need to show some positives results on the field.

“I think not getting out of the pool stage (last year) is pretty poor,” he admitted.

“So we have talked about that last year was probably not a successful year for the program by our standard and we want to try and turn that around this year.

“Internally, we’ve spoken that at least the minimum goal is we get out of the pool stage, and for a school with the history that we’ve got, that should be a goal for us.

“We’re a young team. I’m not trying to play us down, but we are a pretty young team. I think we’ve got probably 10 or 11 boys playing PMC for the first time next week and, at least, six or seven year 11’s playing next week.

“I think they’re up for it but there’s only one way to find out and that’s put them in that environment and see how they go.”