St Patrick’s College Ballarat yesterday took out the Herald-Sun Shield, accounting for St Joseph’s College, Geelong by 51 points. It was St Pat’s first title since 2005, when skippered by none other than NOBSPC powerbroker Dave Ronan. Current NOBSPC player Dave Ronan is still a revered figure at St Pat’s, as mentioned in a Ballarat Courier pre-game article:

…Clark has tasted Herald Sun Shield victory twice – as an assistant coach when St Pat’s first won the Shield in 1999, and as coach in 2005. He said that structurally at least, the 2010 team had much in common with the 2005 one.

“The 2005 group was a young, inexperienced group. There were five boys drafted (to the AFL) from that particular team, and history might show that three or four from this year’s group might have the ability or capacity to play AFL,” Clark said.

“There are a lot of parallels between the 2005 campaign, and this campaign. One of the main ones is the outstanding leadership of that group with David Ronan and Brent Flood.”

For a match report, read St Patrick’s is Victoria’s champion football school.