Iona College makes AIC history with Premiership victories

To give our players every opportunity for success, Iona is fortunate to have some top-quality coaches to help our students excel.

Late last year, former Brisbane Lions captain Tom Rockliff was appointed as Head Coach of our First XVIII team. Tom’s knowledge and experience in the game is first-class, with 208 games in the AFL for the Lions and Port Adelaide.

Tom was joined by co-coach, Iona staff member and Head of High-Performance Sport Mr Leigh Harding – himself a veteran of 141 AFL games for North Melbourne.

Together, these two greats of the game were able to extract the best from our Ionians, delivering the College’s inaugural First XVIII AFL Premiership.

Iona submitted the maximum number of 17 teams into this year’s AIC AFL competition and finished second overall in the AIC AFL aggregate (which is a calculation of the best AIC school for each sport), only one point behind first place.

The First XVIII were one of four teams to win premierships – along with the 10A, 9A and 9B teams – and we had two Primary teams remain undefeated (6B, 6C).

In cricket, Iona’s First XI again performed well, delivering a second consecutive premiership and Iona’s third First XI premiership in four years.

Iona is fortunate to have Mr Wayne Niven as our head coach. We continue to be extremely grateful to him for his service to Iona and Iona’s cricket program spanning many years.

After securing the Oblate Cup for a third consecutive year, Iona came into this year’s AIC competition touted as one of the teams to beat.

Iona’s AIC cricket season culminated in four premierships (First XI, 9A, 9C, 8A) as well as one undefeated primary team (6A).

Since the inception of the AIC competition, Iona’s most successful sport has proven to be volleyball. In fact, from the past 20 years, Iona has won the volleyball aggregate an incredible 13 times. This includes two years where aggregates were not calculated due to COVID.

Iona took out the volleyball aggregate again in Term 1, our third year as title-holders of the best volleyball school in the AIC.

Our First VI were clear favorites leading into the season, and they dominated the competition to win the AIC first premiership for a second consecutive year as undefeated premiers.

Again, the College is grateful to have the experience and service of Mr Rolf Vogelbusch as our head coach.

In a wonderful year for our volleyball program, on top of the aggregate crown, Iona won a remarkable 12 AIC premierships (Firsts, Fourths, 11A, 10A, 10C, 10D, 9B, 9C, 9D, 8B, 7A, 7B).

Our swimming program continues to strengthen. At the AIC Swimming Championships, Iona placed second in the Primary Aggregate and fourth in 12yrs-Open Aggregate (only 5.5 points behind third). We believe we are laying the foundations for future growth and opportunity, and are extremely proud of the swimmers and the way they represented Iona throughout the 2025 season.

Overall, it was a stunningly successful term for sport at Iona, and one that establishes us as one of the top-performing schools in the AIC.

Thanks to our coordinators – Mr Devlin (Years 7-12 cricket), Mr Brendan Allen (Years 5-6 cricket), Mrs Karen Otway (Years 7-12 volleyball) and Mr Leigh Harding and Mr Jack Rolls (AFL) – and to the many coaches, managers, scorers, umpires, referees and to all the boys who participated.