St Patrick’s College announces plans to join Associated Catholic College competition for next year

A Victorian junior footy powerhouse is making a dramatic change which is set to shake up the competition across the state.

Ballarat’s St Patrick’s College will shake up school football competition in 2023 when it makes a dramatic move away from its Ballarat competition to compete against larger Catholic schools from around the state.

But it could come at a significant cost as one slip up could see one of the most successful entities in the Herald Sun Shield miss finals in years to come.

The College hopes the move from the Ballarat Associated Schools (BAS) competition to the Associated Catholic Colleges (ACC) will better prepare its players for success.

For generations St Patrick’s has played in the BAS competition, winning through to the semi-finals of the Herald Sun Shield on a yearly basis where it would then be pitted against the winners of the ACC, the School Sport Victoria competition and the Geelong Independents Schools Sports Association competition.

The team has made the final of the Herald Sun Shield every year since 2009, last winning in 2015, when current GWS Giants star Jacob Hopper was captain.

This year the team will play in the semis again, against Emmanuel College from Warrnambool next Wednesday.

St Patrick’s has easily won through to the semi after dominating the BAS competition, winning all three group games and having percentage of over 900 per cent.

St Patrick’s director of football, Howard Clark, said the dominance forced the school to make the decision to go through another pathway next year.

“Our first 18 will go into the ACC and our second 18 will go into the BAS competition,” he revealed.

“It’s going to reinvigorate the BAS competition.

“I think with disparity of numbers, with St Pat’s being a boys school, it’s disproportionate (in numbers) for the other (Ballarat) schools.”

St Patrick's College student James Clark will captain the team at this year's Herald Sun Shield competition. Picture: Shane Jones.

St Patrick’s in 2021 announced the decision to move into the ACC with cross country, athletics and swimming but now it is adding football to the list.

The school will now need to beat teams including the last Shield winners in 2019, St Bede’s, Whitefriars (this year’s representatives), Geelong’s St Joseph’s and Parade College to qualify.

“It’s a great challenge for our boys and something I’m really excited about,” Clark said.

“I first proposed it eight to 10 years ago now and it has taken this long to come to fruition.

“I think it is going to be wonderful for our boys and I think the ACC will be a better competition for having St Pat’s in it.

“Also I think our boys, with better opposition, will become better footballers.”

The decision now means that St Patrick’s will have two chances to make the Herald Sun Shield with their seconds in contention in the BAS competition.

“For our second 18, they’ll have to work incredibly hard to win BAS,” Clarks said.

“We expect to challenge really well in BAS from our second 18 group.”

For now the school’s immediate goal is to win this year’s Herald Sun Shield, starting with next week’s clash against Emmanuel.

The game will be shown live on KommunityTV.

For more information head here.