With powerhouse crews from Scotch College, Brighton Grammar, Wesley, and Melbourne Grammar School leading the charge, the 2025 Melbourne Head Regatta provided an early look at how the schoolboy eight landscape is shaping up. Familiar names filled the top spots, but the margins suggest this year’s Head of the River Race could be tighter than ever.
This race is named in honour of Brian Dalton, one of Victoria’s most respected rowing coaches; the Brian Dalton Memorial Men’s Eight pays tribute to a man whose influence spanned from club to Olympic level. A Rowing Victoria Hall of Fame inductee, Dalton guided crews at World Rowing Championships, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and famously helped Xavier College break a 51-year drought in 1999. His legacy remains a cornerstone of Victorian rowing.
The 3.5km course through the heart of Melbourne remains one of the great draw-cards of the early season, and this year is no exception. The head race demonstrates how a large, high-quality field of ten schoolboy crews can be run efficiently, setting a strong benchmark for the Victorian regattas still to come. With margins so fine and momentum already building, the stage is set for an enthralling summer of schoolboy racing leading into Barwon and beyond.
Brighton Grammar
This crew, comprising Quill, Michele, Harper, Cleret, Haycox, Church, Hanley, Carson, and coxed by Hofmann, plans to lead the pack at the Melbourne Head Regatta. Coming from a successful season and bronze medal in the U19 Men’s Coxed eight at the Australian Rowing Championships in Lake Barrington last season, Brighton Grammar has some new energy with a fresh crew, with only Haycox and Church returning. After being beaten by Scotch by only 3.6 seconds the previous year, this crew has two experienced athletes ready to lead the redemption charge.
Scotch College
The rivals for this event leading into the start of the 2025/2026 season are Scotch College. With a crew consisting of Roufail, Speed, Richards, McLaughlin, Simpson, Temple, Jelbart, and Lamont, this crew aims to surpass their previous time of 10:24. This team is experienced with racing as both Roufail and Temple competed last year both winning the Melbourne Head Regatta in addition to Temple being in the winning Scotch crew for the 2025 APS Head of the River Race regatta taking out the Fairbairn Cup.
Xavier College
The crew consisting of Reynolds, Dwyer, Reynolds, O’Sullivan, Spralja, Pattison, Pawlik and Glass are tracking to pace against scotch this head race from the last seasons second place there looks to be new faces within the team with experience from Reynolds to lead this team. After earning first place in the semifinal of the men’s U19 coxed eight, in addition to the change in head coach in recent years, Xavier College has enjoyed a set of excellent campaigns and remained close to the front of the pack at various Victorian regattas.
Melbourne Grammar School
With the new blood of Negri, Mitchell, Mayo, Castine, Adkins, Thomas, Caillard, MacLennan, this crew will be looking to build new foundations of the previous season, coming third at the 2025 APS Head of the River Race and finishing between Brighton Grammar and St Kevin’s within the Melbourne Head Regatta. With a new season comes new opportunities with crews to gain more racing rivalry, and Melbourne Grammar School is no exception.
Prediction
I expect that the first and second places will be a tight contest, with Brighton Grammar hungry for redemption against Scotch College, who will be looking to hold the momentum from last season’s Melbourne Head of the Regatta win. In the end, Brighton will come out on top with Scotch College in a tight second. In the third place, I expect it will be a close margin between Xavier College and Melbourne Grammar School, but eventually Xavier College will come third, with the latter close behind.
