Mug Fan
SGI NSW Cup
He should be dressed like that dude at the end
Schoolboy Rugby League 2026. Mulholland Cup/ASSRL Nationals
- Thread starter Mug Fan
- Start date
He should be dressed like that dude at the end
Forever_Illawarra
SGI Junior League
Even their 18th man has some highlights from last year.
u17s highlights
Just goes to show the caliber of talent they have in the squad this year.
u17s highlightsJust goes to show the caliber of talent they have in the squad this year.
AyiosYiorgos
SGI Jersey Flegg
Love a winger who can change the ball from left to right, have seen so many wingers who play on the left with right hand carriers or play on the right with left hand carriers and dont change hands..Even their 18th man has some highlights from last year.
Just goes to show the caliber of talent they have in the squad this year.
Watch the try he scores from 40 seconds , he receives the ball from a dropout..
Mug Fan
SGI NSW Cup
Rokko Walker chosen in the NSW CIS 18s Squad.
Mug Fan
SGI NSW Cup
Illawarra Sports High revival a Bumper change
A former Dragons and Knights insider has quietly overhauled a struggling program from the ground up. One desperate defensive stand has signaled a turnaround 18 months in the making.
A complete overhaul led by one of the sharpest minds in the business has brought a struggling Illawarra Sports High rugby league program back to life.
The school scored its first win in the NRL Schoolboy Cup in more than 1000 days when they knocked off rivals St Gregory’s College in the opening round.
But it was more than just points on the table.
For Illawarra Sports High coach Nick O’Hara and director of rugby league Mark Andrews, it was the realisation of 18 months of hard work completely rebuilding the school’s rugby league program.
We were getting beaten by 50-60 points in Schoolboy Cup games against other sports high schools that maybe in the past we’d been competitive with,” O’Hara said.
“The main thing was, we just weren’t getting the talent to the school
Instead of having a team full of Harold Matthews, SG Ball, Laurie Daley and Andrew Johns Cup players that we have now, we might have one or two players that was at that level and then we’d be scraping together 16-year-olds or Year 10 players trying to make up a Schoolboy Cup side playing against all the elite 18-year-olds within the state.
“We just weren’t competitive with the talent that we had coming in.”
A HELPING HAND
‘Bumper’ Andrews has been an influential, behind-the-scenes figure across rugby league holding strength and conditioning roles at the Knights, St Dragons and Warriors.
He was also head of performance at Huddersfield and has created his Elite Rugby League Pathways on the NSW south coast.
Andrews reached out to Illawarra Sports High to offer support after watching the school struggle for results in the Peter Mulholland Cup.
“(He) has been increasing our connections within the local community and has brought some coaches such as Harold Matts and SG Ball coaches and assistant coaches into our program,” O’Hara said.
“That has then boosted our ability to recruit players to the school and now word of mouth’s getting out that Illawarra Sports High is back.
“We feel like, being a sports high school in such a big area in the Illawarra, that you would hope the talented players would want to come to the school. In the past they’ve just been going to local high schools or they’ve been going to Edmund Rice College. Now, the talented players in the area want to come to our school
“It’s on the improvement and the rugby league program’s really firing. You can see that with the numbers we’ve got in our junior program as well at the moment. There’s 30-40 plus players in each age group at the moment. It’s unreal.”
BREAKTHROUGH TO BELIEF
While the rich vein of fresh talent running through the squad, the moment of their first win in three years has not been lost on the Illawarra Sports High group.
The 14-10 win over St Gregory’s College was built on a foundation of hard work and determination, typified by a 10-minute stint of defending their line with a man in the bin and refusing to be cracked.
Illawarra will have a chance to back up that performance against rivals Westfields Sports High later this month, and there is a quiet confidence in their ranks that they can make a genuine play at the Peter Mulholland Cup finals for the first time in more than five years.
“The players that have come in, have bought into our program really well,” O’Hara said.
“You can see from the culture and the dedication that they’re bringing to their program and their training, that they realise this is a big shot and that the Schoolboy Cup is a big deal.
A former Dragons and Knights insider has quietly overhauled a struggling program from the ground up. One desperate defensive stand has signaled a turnaround 18 months in the making.
A complete overhaul led by one of the sharpest minds in the business has brought a struggling Illawarra Sports High rugby league program back to life.
The school scored its first win in the NRL Schoolboy Cup in more than 1000 days when they knocked off rivals St Gregory’s College in the opening round.
But it was more than just points on the table.
For Illawarra Sports High coach Nick O’Hara and director of rugby league Mark Andrews, it was the realisation of 18 months of hard work completely rebuilding the school’s rugby league program.
We were getting beaten by 50-60 points in Schoolboy Cup games against other sports high schools that maybe in the past we’d been competitive with,” O’Hara said.
“The main thing was, we just weren’t getting the talent to the school
Instead of having a team full of Harold Matthews, SG Ball, Laurie Daley and Andrew Johns Cup players that we have now, we might have one or two players that was at that level and then we’d be scraping together 16-year-olds or Year 10 players trying to make up a Schoolboy Cup side playing against all the elite 18-year-olds within the state.
“We just weren’t competitive with the talent that we had coming in.”
A HELPING HAND
‘Bumper’ Andrews has been an influential, behind-the-scenes figure across rugby league holding strength and conditioning roles at the Knights, St Dragons and Warriors.
He was also head of performance at Huddersfield and has created his Elite Rugby League Pathways on the NSW south coast.
Andrews reached out to Illawarra Sports High to offer support after watching the school struggle for results in the Peter Mulholland Cup.
“(He) has been increasing our connections within the local community and has brought some coaches such as Harold Matts and SG Ball coaches and assistant coaches into our program,” O’Hara said.
“That has then boosted our ability to recruit players to the school and now word of mouth’s getting out that Illawarra Sports High is back.
“We feel like, being a sports high school in such a big area in the Illawarra, that you would hope the talented players would want to come to the school. In the past they’ve just been going to local high schools or they’ve been going to Edmund Rice College. Now, the talented players in the area want to come to our school
“It’s on the improvement and the rugby league program’s really firing. You can see that with the numbers we’ve got in our junior program as well at the moment. There’s 30-40 plus players in each age group at the moment. It’s unreal.”
BREAKTHROUGH TO BELIEF
While the rich vein of fresh talent running through the squad, the moment of their first win in three years has not been lost on the Illawarra Sports High group.
The 14-10 win over St Gregory’s College was built on a foundation of hard work and determination, typified by a 10-minute stint of defending their line with a man in the bin and refusing to be cracked.
Illawarra will have a chance to back up that performance against rivals Westfields Sports High later this month, and there is a quiet confidence in their ranks that they can make a genuine play at the Peter Mulholland Cup finals for the first time in more than five years.
“The players that have come in, have bought into our program really well,” O’Hara said.
“You can see from the culture and the dedication that they’re bringing to their program and their training, that they realise this is a big shot and that the Schoolboy Cup is a big deal.
Mug Fan
SGI NSW Cup
I would really like to see Bumper in a Dragons Pathways role.
Dave03
SGI NSW Cup
That's a great read, thanks for sharing. Love hearing about these types of stories.