Ryan Catholic College and Southern Cross Catholic College took to the field in Round 3 of the NQISSRL with an extra special purpose, officially kicking off the 2023 Bishop Putney Shield Series across u13, u15, Open Girls and 1st XIII Boys.

The Bishop Putney Shield is all about raising awareness for youth mental health and a great lead into the annual Queensland Mental Health Week Rugby League & Netball Carnival organised annually in October by Southern Cross & Ryan. The best of three series creates multiple opportunities to have conversations about looking out for your team mates, raising awareness about speaking up on how you feel and promotes the connection between a healthy lifestyle, playing team sport and the positive benefits they have on youth mental health.

The Bishop Putney Shield will see u13, u15, Open Girls & 1st XIII Boys compete over a best of 3 series, with the rd 3 NQISSRL fixture acting as Game 1. Game 2 and 3 will be played in front of each college’s entire school community at the “Southern Cross Feast Day” later this term and then on “Ryan Day” in early Term 3.

The Bishop Putney Shield officially kick-starts the youth mental health awareness campaigns within the rugby league programs at Ryan Catholic College and Southern Cross Catholic College, with the big awareness events taking place at Southern Cross’ Feast Day (late Term 2) and the annual “Ryan Day” in Term 3. Annually both of these fixtures have massive attendances and this helps with spreading awareness not just within each school’s team, but across the 1000 strong crowd of students in attendance at the events.

The culmination of the mental health awareness campaign takes place October 13, where 10 of the QISSRL Confraternity/QISSN aligned colleges from across the Townsville Catholic Education Diocese compete for the QMHW 9s & Netball Carnival. Annually the QMHW Carnival has over 500 u16 Rugby League and u18 Netballers in attendance and has raised valuable funds and awareness for youth mental health charities since its inception in 2019.