ISDA Debating – Round 3 vs Loretto Kirribilli

Jimmy Nicholas Captain of Debating

Last Friday, Shore hosted Loretto on topics related to ‘Health and Safety’ and were victorious in 4 of the 6 debates against a strong opposition school.

Encouraged by a promising first victory in Round 2, our Year 7s were given the challenging topic ‘That we should ban contact sports for all under 18s.’ Despite making incremental improvements in their prioritisation of arguments week over week, the boys unfortunately went down in a close debate, unable to effectively prove that the physical harms of contact sports outweighed the benefits. Affirming the same topic, our Year 8s seized victory in a convincing win characterised by strong arguments and intelligent model, which the opposition failed to engage with. Their practice in rebuttal during the current affairs component of the Captain’s Playfair session was key in the team moving to 2-1 on the season, the boys hope to secure their spot in the Octos with wins in the coming weeks.

Inspired by the charismatic captain’s scintillating Playfair presentation, the Year 9 team found themselves affirming the topic ‘That Australia should implement a sugar tax.’ Despite being somewhat of a messy debate, a win is a win, and there was a noticeable step up in the team’s manner compared to previous rounds. Aiming to engage more effectively with their opposition in coming weeks, the boys’ second consecutive win puts them in good stead for the postseason. Affirming an intellectually provocative topic, ‘That smokers should not be able to access Medicare,’ our Year 10s went down. Despite doing a great job establishing the principle, the boys were unable to engage in effective analysis of the stakeholders and grapple with their model’s implications on the health system.

Despite their flourishing superiority complex the Senior Bs found the time to fit the Captain’s slideshow into their busy Friday afternoon schedule, his insights evidently paying off as the team cruised to a classy victory over a strong Loretto side. Affirming the topic ‘That the government should prioritise spending in female health,’ the team leveraged their rigorous analysis of stakeholders to establish a confident throughline throughout their case, a shift in the disjointed energy from previous rounds. Confident, calm, and methodical, their rebuttal was articulated well, with Daniel Kang being the notable speaker for his particularly explosive engagement with the opposition’s case. Moving to 3-0 on the season, the Senior Bs look to clinch their postseason spot this Friday, and most notably continue their Playfair hot streak.

Affirming the same topic, the Senior As continued their dominance of Pool A in yet another surgical victory. Motivated by the disparaging comments of their opposition in relation to their rigorous training routine, the boys entered the prep room excited to affirm yet another aff-weighted topic. With marker in hand, fourth speaker Aaron Rucinski artfully reified the intellectually abstract ideas of the team, highlighting the principle of achieving equality through their model focused on righting historical injustices in healthcare research in particular. With the largest crowd of the season, Lachlan Hunt vivaciously elucidated the core of the A’s argument, and the status quo, laying the groundwork for success on the night. Punctuated by his deep Marxist passion for the righting of historical injustice, second speaker Blake Fite effectively crushed the opposition’s ‘band-aid’ like model, highlighting the superficiality of its impacts. With little more to do at third, Jimmy Nicholas summarised the As’ case, focusing most notably on the institutional nature of the problem of misogyny within the health research space. Ultimately, the boys did well to improve on their flawed time management and ordering of arguments and look forward to extending their win-streak to four against St. Aloysius this Friday.

Special thanks to chairperson debutant Luke Chopra, and all of Debating’s crucial supporting staff and coaches. This week, Shore hosts St Aloysius in what is shaping up to be a competitive evening of debating.

Jimmy Nicholas – Captain of Debating

 Senior As celebrating their victory