So next Friday night we see the 2 best teams in NSW debating (including CHS imo) face off for the ISDA title, like they did in 2021.
Acc. To another poster, Grammar beat Barker (who was missing their state speaker) in a close one whilst Aloys beat the impressive Joeys team in a unanimous and clear decision.
The College St faithful will no doubt be out in force but I think something special is brewing just North of the bridge.
This Grammar team is nowhere near as strong as previous years whilst the Aloys team is freakishly good. It is because of this and the fact that no team has come near them all year, that my call for the ISDA title is St Aloysius.
Looking at this age group in previous years, it looks like Grammar beat Aloys in year 10 and year 9 respectively.
I’ve heard that one Aloys speaker has become quite strong in recent years, though.
One member mentioned that Aidan Woo’s brother James Woo is currently debating in the grammar Senior Bs, and two state squad members are in the 2nds (senior B) and 3rds of the grammar teams. Grammar doesn’t do age group teams for seniors, which is why there are 2 or 3 year 11s in the senior A team (as I have seen posts suggesting that Kasra Roushan is in year 11 and year 12, so I’m not sure about him). Given the depth of the cohort (as there is a state squad speaker in the 3rds without age group selections), the fact that this is the third year in a row they are in the grand finals, and finally the fact that the adj who got rolled last week was the only one who voted in favour of the barker neg team for a topic she lost her Australs semis on, on the same side as Barker, I’m not quite convinced by RomanForum’s argument.
That said, I have heard similarly excellent things about the Aloys team, with that one speaker in particular becoming quite strong in the past two years.
The Grammar team (who I’m slightly more familiar with) consisting I believe of the historically strong (as one member mentioned early in the competition) Remy Sloan and Kasra Roushan, as well as another strong year 11 Will Ellis, are still well positioned as a very strong team to take home the premiership for Grammar for the 3rd year in a row.
but given the form of Aloys this year, in a match up between the best teams in NSW debating, it will be a very high quality debate to watch.