More than 200 students from RMIT University will compete in next week’s Australian University Games, with the women’s Australian Rules team among a number of favourites for gold.
The football team will be defending the title they won at last year’s games, and are hoping to repeat their gold medal performance at the Latrobe Valley Southern University Games (SUG) in July.
Women’s Australian Rules football manager Lauren Morecroft said the SUG win has given the team confidence to put their best kick forward next week.
“We actually have a few more girls that are football players to strengthen the squad too,” Ms Morecroft said.
“If we don’t make the gold medal match we will be quite disappointed in ourselves.”
RMIT will be represented in 19 sports, including netball, golf, beach volleyball and ten-pin bowling.
The teams are hoping to continue the lucky strike after taking the win at the Southern University Games in July.
The Redbacks took home the Overall Champion trophy at the games, coming first in women’s Australian rules football, ten-pin bowling, men’s hockey, mixed netball, men’s soccer and men’s golf.
The trophy is awarded to the university with the highest gold medal tally at the end of the five-day event.
One of the medal favourites for RMIT at the games in Adelaide is their number one golfer, Matthew Ellis.
“Matt has won at other events and he’s been playing really good golf in recent tournaments,” golf team manager Jack Johnstone said.
Mr Johnstone said RMIT has a strong golf team this year and are ready to play a competitive game with archrival, Monash University.
“You don’t know how the other teams are going, but I’m really happy with the team we have and all the players this year,” he said.
“And this is a team event, and it suits us a lot better and gives us more confidence.
“So I know we will do really well, just hoping the results from SUG show at AUG as well.”
At his fifth AUG event, Mr Johnstone said it’s important for student athletes to join university sports and participate in multi-university events.
“The whole thing is a great bonding experience and it’s just lots of fun,” Mr Johnstone said.
Other Redback teams to watch out for include beach volleyball and ten-pin bowling – all are expecting to do well.
The 2012 Australian University Games are held from 23 to 28 September.
