The Melbourne Business School took the 20th annual AGSM-Melbourne Business School MBA Cup for the third consecutive year making a clean sweep of events in the competition.
The competition has MBA students from Australia’s top two business schools, Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) and MBS participate in a variety of competitions ranging from a debating contest to netball, touch rugby and soccer matches.
The teams comprised 40 members from each school. While the debating contest contributes 40% of the points, the sporting events count for 20% each.
“There was a lot of passion and aggression by both sides on the field, as shown by the very close result, but when we heard them chanting and congratulating us on our win after the game, that was special,”
At the debate on August 27, the MBS team put forth their arguments to convince the judges that Australia should end its alliance with the US. The next day, they registered a 2–0 win in soccer, snatched a 6–4 touch rugby victory and crushed the opponent 34–12 in netball.
“A clean sweep is certainly worth bragging about for a couple of years, and three years in a row is a pretty big deal,” says Melbourne Business School student president Jude Newton. This was the first time since 2012 that MBS has enjoyed a clean sweep.
“The highlight for me was the sportsmanship. In the past, some of these encounters have been pretty intense and not always friendly on both sides. But the AGSM student co-presidents and I met beforehand and agreed it had to be fun this year and conducted in the right spirit, and it was,” she added.
She was also impressed by the AGSM supporters cheering the MBS side after their team lost the touch rugby match.
“There was a lot of passion and aggression by both sides on the field, as shown by the very close result, but when we heard them chanting and congratulating us on our win after the game, that was special,” she added.
Her pick for the most valuable player would be Chris Enright of MBS, for his contribution in the debating, touch rugby and soccer, where he saved a crucial goal.
“The cup is something that’s talked about when you start at Melbourne Business School, and a lot of AGSM students said it was a highlight of their MBA experience to come down here, meet some like-minded people, make new friends and see how things are done across the border. But I’m pretty sure they’ll want the cup back more than ever next year,” she added.