Over the past week, the 27th annual Indigenous Nationals were held at Monash University in Victoria. The event was contested in mixed competitions across four different sports: touch football, volleyball, basketball and netball. Our 2023 Sydney University team consisted of 19 athletes in which participated.
“Indigenous Nationals brings an amazing mob together from all over, once a year to compete, socialize and have fun. It brings so much joy to see returning faces and build on these connections. I want to go to win, yarn and laugh” said Liam Coe, one of the competing students.
An excellent display from our basketball team through the durations of the tournament saw some outstanding group stages wins. With three convincing wins to make it through to the Quarter Final. The team once again were able to put on a strong display against the University of Newcastle with a 32-7 win to make it to the final stages of the tournament. The team then came up against their hardest opponent with a narrow 21-20 win over Australian Catholic University to qualify in the Grand Final. The Grand Final saw Sydney University verse one of the other heavyweights of the competition being Charles Darwin University, a low scoring event, unfortunately it wasn’t enough for Sydney Uni going down by 4 in a tight contest of 19-15. Overall, the basketball was seen to be a huge success and athletes where commended on the outcome.
Basketball Results
GAME 1: USYD 30 def SUT 13
GAME 2: USYD 28 def CSU 9
GAME 3: USYD 40 def UNE 9
QUARTER FINALS: USYD 32 def UON 6
SEMI FINALS: USYD 21 def ACU 20
FINALS: CDU 19 def USYD 15
A tough first encounter against University of Queensland, saw Sydney University go down 9-1. The team was able to bounce back in a convincing way winning their next game against Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with a commanding win of 13-0. It was also an excellent boost for teams for and against. The teams last group stage game was against LaTrobe University defeating them 12 points to 1. Unfortunately, the team were unable to progress to the Quarter Finals. It was promising to see the progression of the team in the final two games to have such a big win.
Touch Football Results:
GAME 1: UQ 9 def USYD 1
GAME 2: USYD 13 def RMIT 0
GAME 3: USYD 12 def LaTrobe 1
The netball team were excellent over the duration of the week, with some excellent results. A tight first game saw the netball team go down to a strong Queensland University of Technology 24-21, a game that could have easily gone in favor. This didn’t dishearten the team with them coming back with an excellent win against Bond University being able to pile on the points with the final score being 31-9. This was followed up by another big win in game 3 where Sydney University were able to come out on top against the University of Tasmania winning 22-11. With the excellent efforts in both game 2 and 3, it wasn’t enough to make the quarter finals. It puts the team in good stead for the next year to come.
Netball Results:
GAME 1: QUT 24 def USYD 21
GAME 2: USYD 31 def BOND 9
GAME 3: USYD 22 def UTAS 11
The volleyball team were strong over the duration of the group stages not losing a set, an excellent achievement for our Volleyballers. First games saw Sydney University beat UTS in a 2-0 win. This was then followed by wins against Bond University, Deakin University, and University of Canberra with all wins being strong 2-0 achievements. As the quarter finals were upon, we had our biggest challenge yet with versing last years winners Griffith University, it was tremendous to see that University spirit, as unfortunately we went down 2-1, the team must be commended on how they played against the best side.
Volleyball Results:
GAME 1: USYD 2 def UTS 0
GAME 2: USYD 2 def BOND 0
GAME 3: USYD 2 def DEAK/VU 0
GAME 4: USYD 2 def UC 0
QUARTER FINAL: GU 2 def USYD 1
This was an excellent week that saw the students’ athletes excel in the range of different sports. It was also a great way to celebrate the rich sporting culture of our Indigenous student athlete that the University has to offer, whilst acknowledging the heritage of our student athletes.
