Noble Park Secondary College students, from left, Palingu Lokupathirage, Scott Chamberlain, Lesina Lalotoa, Ezra George and Mark Euese are among the first intake of the school’s rugby union academy. 59891
By Paul Pickering
NOBLE Park Secondary College has become the front line in rugby’s battle to gain a foothold in AFL heartland.
The Noble Park Rugby Academy – Victoria’s first school-based rugby program to be endorsed as a Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) course – kicked off this week under the guidance of director Shannon Keane and the Victorian Rugby Union.
The school has 21 Year 11 students enrolled in the specialised subject this year and is planning to expand the program to involve students from Year 7 to 10 in 2012.
The 2011 debut is extremely timely, with the introduction of the Melbourne Rebels to the international Super-15 competition, but VRU development officer Mike Motu said the academy was about much more than landing a blow in the battle of the footy codes.
In fact, the Noble Park program has been based on Hallam Senior College’s successful AFL Academy, which has thrived in partnership with AFL Victoria and the Dandenong Stingrays. Hallam AFL director Ben McGee acted as a consultant during the development of the rugby program.
Motu said the City of Greater Dandenong’s multi-cultural community would make Noble Park an ideal venue to test the water.
“Noble Park has a high population of multi-cultural ethnicities, but, more specifically, there’s a lot of Polynesians within the community, starting from Dandenong and out to Endeavour Hills and Cranbourne,” he explained.
“So we thought it would be great to participate and help the school out, because we knew they would have the numbers there and it could help encourage Polynesian students to stay in school.”
Keane added that allowing students to indulge their passion for rugby would encourage them to concentrate on their other academic studies, while also promoting self-esteem.
The VRU partnership will also ensure that the students at Noble Park have regular access to the Rebels players, who will visit the school on Wednesday afternoons.
Star prop and former New Zealand international Greg Somerville will be the Rebels’ ambassador to the Academy.
Meanwhile, the Noble Park students will act as ambassadors for the game in other schools around the region.
“It’s a win-win partnership,” Keane said.
“Because our students will be going into primary schools and running programs for them, so the VRU benefits from being able to target more students.”
