The AFL stars that fuelled Parade College’s back-to-back Herald Sun Shield premierships
Imagine winning back-to-back school footy premierships on the hallowed turf of the MCG. Parade College did just that in 1994 and is hoping history repeats in 2024.
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It’s Friday, the school bell goes and you’re off to the MCG.
Sounds pretty standard, right? Wrong.
It’s the Herald Sun Shield grand final, on the hallowed turf, a curtain-raiser to an Essendon-Collingwood blockbuster.
You win by 102 points. What a night.
It’s been 30 years, to the day, since Parade College won back-to-back Herald Sun Shield titles.
It will look to repeat that success this year with all games livestreamed exclusively on Kommunity TV.
The 1994 team was stacked with current and future AFL weapons.
Jarrod Molloy was already playing AFL for Fitzroy and had made his MCG debut a couple of weeks prior against the Bombers.
Captain Daniel Harford and Blake Caracella would both be drafted in the first round a couple of months later, to Hawthorn and Essendon respectively.
Daniel Lowther would be selected by Geelong the following year.
Harford said the players knew they were a quality team and duly delivered on the big stage.
“I sat next to Jarrod Molloy in maths class and we’d just talk footy, he was playing at Fitzroy in the seniors at that stage,” Harford said.
“He was my hero, all I wanted to do was be him, because he was playing league footy.
“We had him sitting at full-forward and not many were stopping him, he was a mountain of a teenager.
“We knew (Blake) Caracella was going to be a great player.
“Daniel Lowther was one of my great mates all the way through and he was a great player all the way through.
“So we had four of us that went onto play AFL footy from that year level.
“Then we still had a number of guys playing (Northern) Knights footy, a dozen guys, so it was just a great time to be in that era.”
Parade lost one game on the way to the Associated Catholic Colleges premiership.
It knocked off St Joseph’s North Melbourne, De La Salle and St Bede’s to set up a semi-final against St Joseph’s Geelong, which had beaten it earlier in the year.
A comfortable win saw the school through to the grand final and a clash with Penleigh Essendon Grammar.
Michael Watson won the Neale Daniher Medal as best-on-ground in the thumping win.
Harford said there would forever be something special about winning premierships with your mates.
“Back then school footy was everything for us, playing in the old TAC Cup competition as well,” he said.
“There’s something very special about school footy I reckon, when you’re with the mates that you’ve grown up with.
“When you achieve things you’re connected forever and we had a 30-year reunion about a month ago with the 1994 team and it was great to catch up with guys I hadn’t seen for 20 years.
“Back in those days it was a curtain-raiser, which was the best, it was a huge build-up.
“That Friday at school, all everyone wanted to do was hear that final bell and get to the MCG.
“That night was really cool, the game was over early from a scoreboard perspective, so we got to really enjoy the moment.”
Hoping to repeat history, Parade will begin its campaign for back-to-back intermediate and senior Herald Sun Shield titles on Wednesday.
The school will take on Padua College in the senior semi-final and St Kevin’s in the intermediate semi-final at Williamstown Oval.
A premiership would be the fourth back-to-back victory in school history, having also won a hat-trick of titles in 1996-98.
Parade won the title last year with a 27-point win over Maribyrnong College.
That team featured soon-to-be first-round AFL Draft pick Nate Caddy (Essendon) and 2024 hopefuls Zak Johnson, Tom Sims and Isaac Kako.
The likes of Sims, Johnson, captain Kristian Lawson and Jordyn Gillard are driving this year’s hopes.
Harford has watched his old school throughout the year and is confident they can replicate his year’s success.
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“I watched the (grand final) last year and was suitably impressed with their fight, let alone their quality,” he said.
“I’ve seen a few games this year, our reunion was before one of the games, and they’ve got a fantastic squad and play some terrific footy.
“I expect another strong showing, they’ve got this far so they might as well win it now.”
Catch all the Herald Sun Shield games LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on Kommunity TV.
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