A letter from outgoing MacKillop Saints President Oren Tyler:

8th December 2025

Dear Saints Community,

As 2025 comes to a close and we enter the fifteenth year of MacKillop Rugby codes, we look back with pride on another memorable year for the Saints. Since the College’s inception in 2012, the Rugby codes programme has played a central part in the culture of MacKillop, with a mission to promote sporting participation among the youth of our community; both within the College and beyond.

Over the years, the programme has evolved through several significant chapters. In 2017, in preparation for entering junior teams in the local Rugby Union competition, we restructured into the MacKillop Saints Sporting Association Incorporated, complete with a formal constitution and elected committee. This structure served us exceptionally well during our years in club Rugby Union, and we extend our sincere thanks to all past and present Saints committee members, as well as to our fellow clubs and the leadership of NTRU for their support and collaboration.

In more recent years, our focus has returned to school-based competitions across both codes. As a school-based team, we have found this to be the area where we can make the strongest positive impact. After careful consideration, the committee has resolved to transition the club back to a school-based structure, more fully integrated within the College curriculum. As such, we have formally dissolved the incorporated association and have returned to operating as an unincorporated, school-based entity.

Responsibility for the club’s finances and assets will return to the College, and our organisational structure will reflect that of our earlier years. We will retain our constitution, and all the framework that has been built will remain in place should the club once again choose to incorporate at any time in the future.

It has been my honour and privilege to serve as President of the Saints since the departure of Mr David Graham in 2020. With another significant chapter behind us and many opportunities ahead, I believe this is the right moment to pass on the torch to a highly deserving successor to this presidency: Vice President Mr Matthew Sharp. Since joining the Saints in 2017, Mr Sharp has played a pivotal role in our success. His contributions include serving as Academic Head of Rugby Codes at MacKillop, Head Coach of the club, President of Northern Territory Schools Rugby Union, and volunteering extensively as a coach and referee across school, club, and representative levels. Alongside his personal sporting achievements as a current member of the South Darwin Rabbitohs Rugby Union Club, he also holds key academic leadership roles at the College, including Head of Middle Years and Acting Deputy Principal of Academic Studies.

Please join me in congratulating President Sharp and in offering him your full support as he leads this remarkable organisation into its next chapter.

I look forward with great optimism to the future of this unique and impressive club – one filled with opportunity, growth, and continued success.

Oren Tyler
Outgoing President
MacKillop Saints Sporting Association Inc.