Almost a decade after joining Sydney Uni’s grade program, 28-year old “veteran” Jack McCalman admits his role at the club has changed quite a bit over the years. 

Now the ‘old head’ in a young, relatively inexperienced Sydney Uni side, McCalman wants to help get the Students back in contention at the pointy end of the season. 

“I cop a lot of stick from the younger boys about being the old man of the side. I’m certainly not on TikTok or anything like that like a few of them,” the backrower told Rugby News. 

“I just really love playing for this club. Having played a lot of different grades over the years, then eventually winning a premiership in first grade, it was really disappointing to go through a season like we did last year and I really want to help get the team back to where we want to be, which is playing finals footy and competing for titles.”

After winning the the 2022 Shute Shield premiership, there was a changing of the guard at Camperdown, with 15 players from Uni’s top squad retiring or moving on to higher honours ahead of last year. 

Despite that, the Students lingered mid table for most of the regular season before losing five of their last seven matches to miss out on the finals for the first time since 2017. 

“It’s hard to describe it in any other way other than disappointing. It was such a tight competition and games were won and lost by very small margins. Unfortunately, we really fell away towards the backend of the season,” McCalman continued. 

“We obviously lost a lot of senior players from the 2022 premiership side and that impacted our composure and cohesion. 

“It was a new, younger group and we just weren’t able to finish off games like we had in seasons prior.

“The positive though, is that most of that group is back this year and really hungry to make amends for last season.”

While the playing group has remained settled, McCalman said returning coach Todd Louden had done his best to shake things up at University Oval in preparation for the 2024 season. 

“Todd’s had a fantastic impact. He’s coached at the club before and knows exactly how hard to push the lads. He’s got a strong understanding of the club and what has driven success here in the past and he’s helped us refocus on the fundamentals. 

“We’re still a young group and it’s hard to know how quickly it will take to get things back to where they should be, but I’d like to think we’ll see a pretty decent change in our results from last year.”

McCalman admitted every Sydney Uni side starts the season with the aim to play in that year’s grand final and added he was confident that this playing group had the ability to do just that. 

“Sam Allsop and Jack Matthews have both come out of last year’s first grade colts side that fell just short in the grand final against Warringah. They’ve both been fantastic throughout preseason. 

“There’s also a number of guys who have been in and around the first grade group for a few years now who I think will have big years. 

“Guys like Ciaron Loh, Angus Allen, Luke Ratcliffe, Eddy Poolman. They’ve developed in to really good leaders and have filled the void left by some of the guys from my era that have moved on.”

But ahead of their first trial of the year against the Australian U20s and the Brumby Runners this weekend, McCalman admitted the challenge to move back up the Shute Shield ladder is perhaps as tough in this current competition as it ever has been. 

“There’s threats left right and centre to be honest. Seriously, it’s such a tight competition these days and it really is fantastic to be involved in it. 

“Warringah, like us, wouldn’t have been happy with their season last year. They’ve also got a new coach and have recruited well and I imagine they would have been training pretty hard like us to turn things around. 

“Randwick also aren’t just going to take their title and be happy with it. Steven Hoiles runs a tight regime at Coogee and I imagine they’ll be very keen to try and go back to back. 

“It’s going to be tight across the board though.”