ACU and Brothers strike partnership

A historic and exciting partnership between Brothers Rugby Club (Brothers) and Australian Catholic University (ACU) will expose players and students to cutting edge sport science and enhance educational opportunities for both organisations.

Under the multi-year alliance ACU will make available the sports facilities at its Banyo campus while collaborating with one of the code’s traditional heavyweights to enhance opportunities for ACU students to participate in UniSport Australia programs including the AON’s women’s 7s competition, University championship events and regular competitions through the Brothers sporting programs

The benefits of the exclusive relationship will extend to include Junior Rugby, Girls 7s, Modified Rugby Program, Junior Touch Football and provide pathways to premier competitions and elite representative programs.

“This connects a community club with over a century of tradition with best practice sport science backed by an internationally recognised university,” ACU director of student engagement and services Paul McJannett said.

As well as adding to the club’s training facilities, ACU will facilitate access to its Medical Centre and Allied Health Clinic and provide sport science backing to drive the development of Brothers high-performance strategy. In turn, the partnership provides high quality professional placement opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate students in ACU’s Exercise Science, High-Performance Sport and Exercise Physiology programs.

Further, the university will enhance career opportunities by sharing information related to ACU’s varied education pathways, including the Elite Athlete and Performer Program. Brothers experience in both community and high-performance sport, administrative responsibilities, promotion and player recruitment will strengthen ACU’s commitment to student wellbeing through its participation in the UniSport Australia nationals and potential involvement in the elite Aon Women’s University 7s.

“The Brothers and ACU partnership will deliver lasting benefits to both organisations through the increased performance and greater development of our sporting programs, in particular our female engagement through rugby 7s program,” Brothers CEO Matt Kaye said.

ACU is a national university with eight campuses and in 2021 will open a ninth at Blacktown in greater western Sydney. It is ranked in the top two per cent of all universities worldwide and is ranked in the top 100 universities in the world for sport science.

Media contact: damien.stannard@acu.edu.au, phone 0484387349