UC Stars Shine after 1000 Days

1092 days. That’s how long it has been since the UC Stars have won a George Tooke Shield match.

The UC Stars defeated the Googong Goannas 32-20 last weekend, breaking their long drought to sing their team song for the first time in almost three years. This comes after a 106-point loss the week prior.

The UC Stars were going into the match tied last with the opposition but knowing in the back of their minds that they have been in this position before.

Stars coach Dylan Barton was ecstatic that his side were able to walk away with their maiden win for the season, however, was wary that the same opportunity last year wasn't taken. 

"When we came up against them last year, we were both in the same position that neither team had won a game yet that year and we underestimated them and they came away with the win," Barton said. 

"The boys kept this in the back of their minds and to not think about what the scoreboard has looked like over the past few weeks but just to play on their merit because they are a very good footy squad and we were just lucky to hold them [Googong] out and hopefully looking to repeat that over the next few weeks as well.’’

Barton, a previous UC Stars player transitioned into the head coach role in 2025 and has really enjoyed this new role, however, it has come with its challenges.

"I haven’t transitioned very well unfortunately; I’ve had to play a few times this season before we played Googong but for the most part I really enjoy it. I like being on the sidelines and trying to fix and see things from a bird’s eye view."

"It’s been enjoyable with all the younger boys coming through to help them through their footy lives as well as their personal and university lives."

Despite, struggling with results on the field, Coach Barton says the side has shown resilience on a weekly basis to continue to turn up during the tough times. 

"It’s something that isn’t talked about and that you don’t think about when you have such big losing streaks like this. There’s been multiple games over the years where we’ve been in positions where we probably should have won so it certainly helped on the weekend to get that win."

"They were certainly happy with the win; that’s one way to put it and a lot of relief as well."

A lot of people assume that since this team is from the University of Canberra, that they only take university students, however, this isn’t the case.

"Everyone is welcome to come and play for the Stars just like any other club. We obviously do get a lot of our players through the university because that’s where we get our main exposure from but this year, we actually have more tradies that we do university students."

“One of the boys from last year is an electrician and he came back to play footy, and he saw us on social media and a lot of the boys in this year’s team are old footy mates of his that played with him in under 17s and under 19s.”

“They’re a little bit older, a little bit tougher and that has really helped us just go that next level on the field.”

The Stars next matchup is against the Bungendore Tigers in a fortnight's time and the team are ready to go into the matchup with positive energy.

“It’s certainly come at a good time, Bungendore are a very good side, they have won the competition the last two years. However, they haven’t been going as well as expected so far this season but that doesn’t make it any easier.’”

"We're just trying to ride that momentum in a positive way and bring that into our preparation for the game. Knowing that we need to stick to our game plan and that if we stick to the plan, there’s no reason why we can’t beat any team in this competition.”

The UC Stars will play the Bungendore Tigers after the long weekend on Saturday 13th June at Raiders Belconnen.

Image by Mary-anne Giltrap