Rowing Down Under
Catch-up on all the action from the Australian Rowing Championships
Image Credit: Rowing Australia
While there’s been plenty of different winners in the women’s youth eights, the Noel F Wilkinson Trophy for the men’s youth eights has only gone to New South Wales or Victoria for the last 20 years. Can another state break that drought, or will one of the big two lift the trophy again in 2025?
Australian Capital Territory
It’s a welcome return to the Noel F Wilkinson Trophy for the men from the capital. James Robson, Dylan Outram, Cameron Schmidt, Ben Haywood, Harrison Braithwaite, Max McAlpine, Darcy James, Jesse Rosin and Moira Geraghty are the ACT’s first men’s youth eight since Nagambie three years ago. They’re not a bad crew either, with James and Rosin a strong stroke pair after rowing together at Marist College and now at Canberra Rowing Club. If everything goes right, they have a good chance of matching or beating their best-ever result of fifth.
New South Wales
World champions? Check. International reps? Check. Three brothers in the same boat? Check, check and check. The New South Wales crew of Henry Pursehouse, Matias Moloney, Tomas Moloney, Gus Ciesiolka, Jack Power, William Rogers, Jackson Gursoy, Maxim Moloney and Ryder Taylor are the favourites for good reason. Matias and Tomas Moloney, plus Taylor, are all world champions in the U19 coxed fours, while Rogers finished a creditable sixth in the single sculls in the U19 World Rowing Championships last year.
Queensland
They ran NSW close in 2024, but plenty has to go right for Queensland to win for the first time since 2004. The crew of Nicholas Barlow, Bayley Clarke, Samuel Forbes, Jed Gallie, Finlay Harris, Mitchell Owen, Thomas Stevens, Joseph Thynne and Thomas Coogan has the talent, albeit probably not at the level of NSW. Barlow won the U21 single sculls A-final, while Forbes and Stevens won the U21 pairs. Harris and Clarke made the pairs B-final, meaning a good chunk of the boat is in decent form before Sunday.
South Australia
South Australia has had some good form in the early stages of the Australian Rowing Championships. Their crew of Henry Belcher, Jasper Boyce, Oliver Evans-Wood, George Griffith, Max Henry, Finn Redman, James Williams, Igor Zarubin and Sophia Tayeb sees Belcher and Boyce in the U21 single scull A-final, while Redman took his place in the U19 sculls A-final. Their secret weapon? Eight of the crew – including coxswain Tayeb – row for Adelaide University, so they know how to compete together.
Tasmania
The locals will be keen to make a splash on their home waters, with Noah Haas, Oliver Hart, Jack Connah, Hamish Clyne, Falcon Palmer, Rowan Sanderson, Oliver Quinn, Cam Parker and Jamari Lockhart flying the flag for the Apple Isle. Falcon Palmer and Sanderson raced in the B-final of the U21 pairs, while Cam Parker won bronze in the A-final of the U21 singles.
Victoria
One of the shocks of this year’s Australian Rowing Championships has been the lack of junior Victorian men’s crews in small boat finals. From a crew of Joshua Matheson, Lachlan Idle, Max Currie, Alexander Williams, James Simpson, Alessandro Marro, Nicholas Bryant, Amos Kirk and Josh Feferkranz, only Byrant and Idle raced in an A-final. Simpson and Marro raced in the U21 pairs B-final, while Matheson did likewise in the U21 singles. Experience works in their favour, though, with Kirk, Currie, Idle, Bryant and Feferkranz backing up from last year’s bronze medallists.
Western Australia
They were our outside tip for the U21 men’s eights, so we’re going with something similar here. Western Australia’s Lachlan Brown, Harper Davies, Joshua Hantke, Jack Hansen-Knarhoi, Oscar Lourie, Harry Salfinger, Austin Vincent, James Young and Helena Hurworth race together in the U21 eights, giving them great experience in what have been variable conditions at Lake Barrington. They’ve got some decent form, too, with Salfinger racing the U21 singles A-final and Vincent and Young doing likewise in the pairs. They’ll take the fight to New South Wales and should finish on the podium.
Prediction
It’s almost impossible to go past the well-credentialled New South Wales crew. So we won’t – the Sky Blues to take their fourth consecutive Noel F Wilkinson Trophy, ahead of Western Australia and Queensland.
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