By Angus Hayman

There is no shortage of history when Riverview and Joeys meet, but this weekend’s clash arrives with plenty of present-day significance too.

Riverview will host their traditional rivals sitting equal top of the GPS table, while Joeys arrive with something to prove after a more difficult season than they would have hoped for.

For Riverview head of rugby Craig Morrison, the significance of the occasion is not something to be played down.

“This is one of the biggest games of the schoolboy calendar,” Morrison said.

“You’ve got two teams that like to move the footy around and play a pretty fast game. We’re not underplaying the game. We’re recognising the significance of it, because if you treat it like just another game, all of a sudden it’s not and you’re not prepared for it.”

The Riverview programme has spent the school holidays ensuring it will be ready for the return to GPS rugby.

The school’s GPS squad, comprising the Firsts through to Thirds, completed a two-day training camp before finishing with a targeted scrimmage against Barker last Saturday.

Morrison had been planning the hit-out for some time, knowing his side would return from the break straight into one of the biggest fixtures on the calendar.

“It was a targeted hit-out against them in the lead-up to this game,” Morrison said. 

“We didn’t want to come in underdone.”

The preparation was supplemented by plenty of representative rugby, with nine Riverview players involved in the School Championships in Brisbane and another three taking part in under-16 representative fixtures.

With 12 players from the top squad playing considerable rugby over the holidays, Morrison believes his group will be match-ready, with the focus now on bringing those players back into Riverview’s own systems.

“We don’t feel we’re underdone,” he said. “They’ve had so much footy, that’s been a good thing. It’s probably just bringing them back into our way of doing things.”

That way of doing things has been built around a clear style Morrison wants to see replicated throughout the wider Riverview programme.

With the school not boasting the biggest teams physically, the aim is to play with speed, width and ambition.

“We want to play a fast, expansive sort of game, really use the width of the field,” Morrison said.

The First XV is being coached this season by Anthony Calavasy and George Fifita, with Morrison providing the overarching direction for the programme.

The pair are in their first year in the role and, according to Morrison, have done a strong job implementing the vision set for the wider rugby programme.

That work has Riverview sitting in a strong position, with the First XV and Second XV both sitting on top of the ladder. 

But if that wasn’t enough, the home side will have even more to be playing for.  

The Riverview player who produces the best performance in the First XV will receive the Joe Welch Medal, awarded in honour of a former Riverview student and 2009 Australian Schoolboy who died tragically not long after graduating.

The medal has become a special part of the fixture, with Welch’s family presenting it to the Riverview Player of the Match regardless of the result.

For Riverview, though, the challenge is to ensure the occasion does not distract from the task.

They enter the fixture in a position of strength on the ladder, while Joeys have had a tougher campaign and will be looking to use the final four rounds to rewrite the story of their season.

Morrison believes that makes the contest dangerous.

“We’ve got a lot to lose, and they’ve got a lot to gain,” he said. “Both teams are banging for blood, I’d say, for very different reasons.”

Joeys spent part of the holiday break in Coffs Harbour, preparing for the run home and looking to build momentum at the point of the season when it matters most.

The traditional narrative around this fixture has often placed Joeys among the benchmark programmes, but Morrison believes the current Riverview playing group is beginning to challenge some of those long-held assumptions.

“We talked about drawing a line in the sand and we talked about legacy and tradition,” Morrison said.

“The idea that Joeys are the benchmark, that Shore are always tough to beat at Shore – these are the sort of urban myths around here. This playing group is starting to realise that it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change the natural order of things. That’s in our control.”

For one afternoon, the ladder, the history and the future of both programmes will all collide at Riverview.

And when the Welch Medal is eventually placed in the hands of the Player of the Match, there will be no shortage of reasons for both sides to want their name on the right side of the result.