4 December 2023: Aaron McNaughton
Intervarsity sport at the University dates back to the first university sporting competitions in Australia in 1870. 153 years later, the University provides opportunities for students to represent the University in a variety of regional, national and sometimes international sporting competitions, such as the Big Blue against Monash University, Uni Sport Australia competitions such as Uni Nationals and the University Basketball League, and the Australian Boat Race.
Collectively known as Winged Victory, with Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory, as our symbol, and a poet Homer's promise, to 'grow in the esteem of future generations" as our motto, 528 student-athletes represented the University in 70 competitions and winning 9 national university titles.
Big Blue vs Monash University
Melbourne retained the Big Blue Challenge for the second year in a row, defeating Monash 13 to 9 across 22 competitions.
The Big Blue encapsulates the sporting rivalry between Victoria’s two largest Universities, Melbourne and Monash. Rivals on and off the sporting field, the 22 competitions were held across Semesters 1 and 2 at Melbourne’s Parkville Campus and Monash’s Clayton Campus.
Before Melbourne’s University Basketball League campaign began, they took on both Monash teams in the Nona Lee Sports Centre on 8 March to kick off the Big Blue for 2023. Both Melbourne teams recorded victories, the women 53-48 and the men 67-52. The annual Labour Day T20 competition on University Oval was next up. Batting first, Melbourne recorded 7/139 in 20 overs, with Monash proving too strong, chasing it down to record 4/140 in 15.5 overs and claiming the 6-wicket win to make it 2-1 overall.
As part of the Big Blue, each University has a home leg where multiple events are held on one evening. Monash hosted Football (Men and Women), Squash (Men and Women), Hockey (Women) and Ultimate (Mixed) on 27 March. Across the six competitions, honours were split three apiece on the night. Monash claimed a nailbiting 10-9 victory in Mixed Ultimate, and both Men’s and Women’s Squash won their matches 3-1. Melbourne’s three victories came in Women’s Hockey with a 1-0 win, Women’s Football with a comfortable 3-1 win, and Men’s Football 4-2 on penalties after the game finished at 2-2 after 90 minutes.
For Melbourne’s home leg on 3 April, the seven competitions were Tennis (Men and Women), Touch (Men and Women), Volleyball (Men and Women) and Hockey (Men). In a successful night for the Melbourne teams, they won five events, sweeping the Tennis, 3-0 for the Women and 2-1 for the Men, Men’s Hockey 2-0, Women’s Touch 7-2 and Men’s Volleyball 2 sets to 0. Monash won in Men’s Touch 9-7 and Women’s Volleyball 2 sets to 0.
Rounding out Semester 1 were the Men’s and Women’s Australian Rules Football matches. Unfortunately, the Melbourne women’s team had some late omissions so they had to forfeit the contest to Monash, though the men’s match still proceeded at Monash Uni on 5 April. Melbourne hit the ground running from the first bounce and ran out convincing 67-point winners, 13.11.89 to 3.4.22. At the end of Semester 1, Melbourne led 11-7 with four events to go.
Needing to win all four remaining matches to tie the overall Big Blue, Monash hosted Men’s and Women’s Table Tennis, with both universities always being ultra-competitive in their previous matches. Melbourne was too strong in each competition, the Men winning 5-0 and the Women 3-2. Melbourne hosted Badminton in the Nona Lee Sports Centre in the last two events. In front of over 200 people who packed in to watch, Monash won both matches 2-1, each going down to the Doubles to decide the victor in a thrilling night of Badminton.
The Big Blue will return in 2024, with Melbourne looking for a three-peat.
Uni Nationals
The University of Melbourne displayed its sporting prowess across the year with eight national titles, seven silver and four bronze medals to finish 4th overall, and the top southern university to win the John Campbell Trophy.
During Semester 1, standalone events for Triathlon, Futsal, Athletics and Swimming were held, with Women's Futsal and Women's Triathlon claiming a bronze medal in their respective events.
The Snow Nationals were held at Mt Thredbo in New South Wales in early September, with Melbourne teams being competitive but medalless in five disciplines.
From 23-29 September, the UniSport Nationals were held on the Gold Coast. Melbourne's 36 teams came home with 8 Overall National Titles.
The University dominated the Fencing competition on the opening two days, winning six gold, a silver and two bronze medals to claim the pennants in both the Men's and Women's competitions.
Women's Cycling started the week strongly with a podium clean sweep in the Women's Individual Time Trial and followed it up with a strong performance in the Criterium and gold and bronze in the Road Race.
Women's Table Tennis claimed their title on the final day, defeating the University of Sydney 6-5 in an epic gold medal match that came down to the final rubber.
The Men's Rugby 7's team went undefeated in the tournament, rounding off their competition with a spectacular performance against the University of Sydney, defeating the traditional rugby powerhouse 27-10 in the final. The victory was also the first time a Victorian university had claimed the title.
Mixed Lacrosse also went undefeated for the competition, defeating neighbours RMIT in a nailbiting gold medal match with a 16-14 victory.
Women's Golf had a fantastic week, led by Shanaiah Fernando, who won the Individual and Team Golds. Shanaiah was in the lead from Day 1 of the competition, and her accuracy led her to finish with the lowest score of any competitor, male or female.
After an epic comeback win in the semi-final against Macquarie, Men's Volleyball claimed the national title by defeating the University of Queensland in the final. After a slow start and losing the first set, they won the next three emphatically to come home with gold.
Women's Basketball, Women's Rowing, Men's Golf, Men's Taekwondo, Cheer & Dance, Sailing, and Squash were all on the verge of the ultimate prize but gallantly finished the tournament as runners-up, while Women's Taekwondo and Ultimate finished the week in Third Position.
University Basketball League
Australian Boat Race
After four years the Australian Boat Race returned to the Yarra River over the weekend, hosting the best student-athlete rowers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney. Hundreds of spectators lined the river for the races which saw the Sydney crews taking victories in both main races.
The event opened with the College races, with Trinity and Ormond College representing Melbourne in the Men’s and Women’s events respectively. Both crews put on an impressive display, with Ormond facing off against St. Paul’s College and Trinity taking on Wesley College. The Melbourne Colleges completed a double sweep, taking out both races convincingly.
The much-anticipated Australian Boat Race events lived up to the excitement, providing scores of spectators with two exhilarating races.
The Women's race started with both crews battling head-to-head for ascension on the river. The Sydney crew emerged from the first bend in the course in the lead, and held onto their position over the 4.1km race, crossing the line around 15 seconds in front of Melbourne.
Captain Eliza Gaffney remarked on her crew’s youth and potential, expressing confidence in Melbourne’s ability to retake the Bella Guerin Trophy in the coming years;
“We’re a slightly younger crew who are still developing; we’re looking forward to the future”.
The Men’s race started in windy conditions and some controversy, with the 2 boats almost colliding while vying for pole position around the first turn of the course which led to the race being restarted by race officials. In the second race, The Sydney crew got off to an early lead and powered to a dominant victory over the Melbourne crew.
Despite the result, the ABR represents the tail-end of an otherwise extremely successful year for MUBC and the University’s rowing athletes, with Gaffney sharing what it means to herself to represent the University and MUBC following her national title-winning season with MUBC;
“It’s such a privilege. We’re very lucky to be students of the University and row at MUBC, we’ve got fantastic resources and we’re very grateful for the support we have from the University”.
The Edmond Barton and Bella Guerin Trophy tallies now sit at 2-11 and 8-5 for Melbourne and Sydney respectively, with much anticipation already building around MUBC and the University’s redemption campaign in 2024.