I respect and understand that this forum is for the QLD GPS competition, but for the sake of the schoolboy Rugby Union enthusiasts on here, let me clarify a few things.
The last and only time Barker 1st XV was the best schoolboy rugby team in NSW was in 2018. They beat Joeys by 1 point and King's by 4 points (those two schools were the AAGPS co-premiers in 2018) both in trial matches, beat Waverley by 2 in the CAS, and went the season undefeated beating both AAGPS winners and going undefeated in the CAS. However, that Barker 2018 team being as good as it was was a one off for the school in being the best rugby school in NSW, and is subsequently the epidemy of the great extent of how importing can impact schoolboy rugby success.
I don't blame schoolboy rugby supporters from the QLD GPS to think that Barker is the best rugby school in NSW, which can be assumed is the reason why they're playing the best rugby school in QLD (Nudgee) in an annual match from 2022 onwards. The only reason why Barker is playing Nudgee is quite frankly because they were the school from Sydney that initiated and organised to play against the top school in Brisbane, as when that annual Barker v Nudgee fixture started in 2022, Barker won the CAS, and still were not the best team in Sydney that year. However in Sydney, there is minimal affiliation between the CAS competition teams and AAGPS competition teams besides 1 or 2 trial fixtures at the start of the season. There is nothing at the end of the season that clearly determines what team each year is the best in NSW, although, it is always evident who it is. Thinking that Barker is the best rugby school in NSW is simply incorrect. Every year there is a combined AAGPS 1st XV team selected of the best players from each of the 6 AAGPS schools, who play against a combined CAS 1st XV that groups together the best players in the CAS competition into one representative team. This is a very coveted match every year, in which AAGPS often wins, and in recent years, won very convincingly against CAS (it was a blowout in favour of AAGPS in 2022 and 2023). The last time CAS combined 1st XV beat the combined AAGPS 1st XV was 2018, the one and only year Barker were the best in NSW. So given that information regarding the GPS v CAS game and the results of when AAGPS schools play against CAS schools (and other knowledge/information), it is practically undeniable that the AAGPS is the best competition in NSW (hence why CAS school Knox was trying to join the AAGPS back in 2010 and St Augustine's wants to join as well in recent times - neither will happen - history is integral to the AAGPS), and the best rugby school in the AAGPS is Joeys, without a doubt. Given that Joeys is the best rugby school in NSW, I would say they're the best in Australia (no I do not go there nor went there), so really if the best rugby school of NSW was to play the best rugby school in QLD every year, it would be St Joseph's College Hunters Hill v St Joseph's College Nudgee. Just to clarify, Joeys in NSW is like Nudgee in QLD, they're the juggernaut of the competition, are very strong each year, and have the most success in the competition.
Furthermore, Barker is likely not even the best rugby school in the CAS, it would be Waverley, then Barker, then Knox, then Trinity, then Cranbrook, then St Aloysius. Barker has evidently given the impression in recent years that they're the best school in NSW due to winning the (lesser) CAS competition, in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2024. However Barker is extremely notorious for importing for their 1sts (not sure if that word is banned on this thread), which is why Barker rugby struggles in the lower opens teams and younger years immensely, and only have 4 opens teams each year, as there isn't even a major rugby culture at the school, because they're success is reliant on bringing in talent, rather than building it among their students using coaches and their rugby program, which is what each AAGPS schools do, which is why the AAGPS has more depth and is more competitive. I know a member of Barker staff and they tell me about the kids they bring in during year 10 of schooling. There are quite literally coaches at Barker whose job it is to scout out players from other schools (that are not at a CAS level rugby school, and so those scouted/talented players want to promote themselves into a a more coveted competition - those scouts don't target AAGPS players, as they wouldn't drop down to the CAS competition) or from club rugby programs. For example, the current Australian U18s fullback Charlie Poynton from Barker, was at St Augustine's (which is in the ISA competition) till year 9, then got imported to Barker in year 10, and played in the Barker 1sts from 2022 to 2024. There are much looser restrictions on importing in the CAS competition than the AAGPS competition (it's banned and strictly policed in AAGPS), hence why AAGPS schools each have better rugby culture and subsequent depth in their rugby programs compared to CAS, which is why the AAGPS competition is so competitive and close each year, whereas imports plague the CAS and QLD GPS, which is why for those two school sporting associations there are only 3 schools every year that are the only ones ever really to be in contention for the premiership (Waverley, Barker, Knox and Nudgee, TSS, Churchie)
Just so you know, here is my list of the best rugby school in NSW from 2015. This may help to inform your knowledge regarding the Australian U18 selections recently and clarify your knowledge regarding your comments on NSW rugby. I could expand this list and do from many years before 2015, but have already written a lot in this post, and you specifically in your comment referred to recent years.
2015. Scots
2016. Scots
2017. Scots and Waverley
2018. Barker
2019. Joeys
2020. King's/Waverley
2021. Riverview / Waverly
2022. Joeys
2023. King's
2024. Shore/St Augustine's
I find it quite humorous that you say Nudgee are too good for Joeys. I know NSW schoolboy rugby quite well (not sure how I can say that in a humble manner over keyboard/technology), and comparatively a bit less knowledgeable on QLD schoolboy rugby, as I reside with the NSW competitions, but am connected to Churchie. To put it numerically, if Joeys was to play Nudgee every year from 2000, Joeys would likely win about 18 of those games. It's a hard pill to swallow (for me included) but they are the top rugby school in Australia, hence why they've produced the most Wallabies out of any school in the nation (Nudgee has produced 26 and Joeys 48). I sense that you interpret that Joeys is no longer (due to their performance in the past two years) good enough to play against Nudgee. Joeys has always remained at the top of the AAGPS rugby competition, and considering that the past two years Joeys did not win, does not infer that Joeys has fallen off (at all) to where they wouldn't be good enough to play Nudgee. It just goes to show that there is more depth in the NSW AAGPS, as the competition has more potential winners as it's a lot closer and more competitive than the QLD GPS, which seems to be the same couple of schools winning the competition each year. Joeys rugby always remains at a high level every year and is practically in premiership contention each year, but every once in a while each school builds a team that knocks off Joeys, and vice versa Joeys every few years builds a team that is simply too strong. And just so you know, more than half of Joeys 1st XV in 2024 was boys younger than year 12, and they came a close second in the AAGPS this year against boys older than them, so I predict that there will be a lot of Joeys boys in the Australian U18s next year, as some were unfortunate not to make it this year (I already elaborated this on the NSW 2025 AAGPS thread).
Your comment regarding the Joeys v Riverview rivalry saying that it is not as significant as a 'premiership decider on Ross oval', I think I can assume is affected by the fact that when Riverview hosts the game against Joeys, they have to move it to an NRL ground, because it gets so many people in attendance that the last time it was held at Riverview was 2018, there was 10,000 people there, and things got out of hand because of the number of people there. Look that game up on youtube, that is probably one of the best schoolboy rugby games in Australia of all time and is so significant it is dubbed 'Joeys premiership at the death' as they won the Premiership from that game in the final plays of the final game of the season. It is definitely fair to say that the Joeys v Riverview rivalry is probably unmatched in Australia, this year Riverview got the two NRL Footy Show presenters Fletch and Hindy to be part of their promotional video for the game, and got Gus Gould to go to the Riverview campus in 2016 for the promotional video. Those games when held at Riverview would get consistently around 10,000 each game (there's footage proof of that all over the internet - I think there is snippets of old games and crowds in Riverview's 2024 View v Joeys 'hype up' video). Whether or not you think which competition has had more significant and coveted games in the past depends on which competition each person follows more, but here are two other such games from NSW AAGPS. The 1997 premiership decider of Kings v Shore had 17,000 people in attendance, and there was about just under 10,000 at the Shore v Joeys game this year. The reason for the decline of attendance of spectators to schoolboy rugby union is due to league popularity surging in recent years, and plus in that 1997 game an abundance of AAGPS supporters (old boys and parents) went to that premiership decider, instead of going to their specific school that they support's game, due to how coveted the AAGPS premiership is and how popular schoolboy rugby and union was at the time (I have an extremely credible and well known source who told me this regarding the decline in popularity of schoolboy rugby union, but I cannot expose who they are - and just so you know, NSW schoolboy rugby union is similar to QLD schoolboy rugby union in that it's not rock bottom like how the Wallabies and there fanbase is).
Here is an explanation regarding your comments about the Shore and Joeys stands/playing fields. There are two words as to why Shore's main field is also used for cricket, distancing the grand stand away from the field, and why the Joeys stand is not being rebuilt even though you perceive it to be 'past its use by date'; history and tradition. Shore makes up for having the grand stand distanced from the field, as it's practically like a chunk/section of a stadium was placed on the side of their main oval (which is also used for cricket), which no other school in Australia besides Knox has a grandstand to that extent. Joeys keeps their traditional stand and applies the principle 'if it's not broken, don't fix it', as it fits the entire school, and because it is named after Brother Henry; The Brother Henry Pavilion, who was integral to rugby at Joeys and was fundamental to their long standing rugby heritage, tradition and success.
Apologies for my rant, your statements to my initial message were extremely broad and required a lot of explanation in order to help those foreign to the NSW competitions to understand them better and clarify things which needed such clarifications, and remove any incorrect assumptions about NSW schoolboy rugby. Anyways, well done to Nudgee for winning the premiership this year, they deserve it after the great season they've had. If you would like to respond to this, it would likely be better to do so by private messaging me, so that this forum can remain on the topics of QLD GPS rugby, unless you perceive it to be so important it must appear on here.
If Nudgee wants to declare themselves as the best rugby school in Australia, they should be looking more-so to play the winner of the AAGPS each year.
(Boy I am so mad RN....)