Conversation: John O’Neill, Soccer Australia supreme - Joeys boy in a very different ball game ...

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
22 August 2004

Pope John Paul II returns to Lourdes as a pilgrim

Children ‘used as political fodder’

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Reunion for ‘Class of 1954’

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Patricians choose Indian to head leadership team

Let patients know risks, say ethics prizewinners

Pitter Patter: When tragedy hits

Fire in Genesian roof, so show must go off

Caritas acts to help Sudanese refugees

Cardinal’s Comment: Food for reflection

Editorial: Good sports

Children paint a sad picture of our apathy

Conversation: John O’Neill, Soccer Australia supreme - Joeys boy in a very different ball game ...

The secret life of ducks

‘No poverty’ target in poll

Stephanie’s skills in English win a high distinction

Unity is a sea of hands ...

Cardinal pays visit to seven Ashfield schools

At last, after a lifetime as a priest, Mons Tony has his own parish

‘Flame of faith’ in Bl Mary

Sr Maurus Tierney, friend to the poor and convicted

Bishop: sin not part of God’s plan for us

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3-goal netball win over Marist Sisters Woolwich

Mathematics ... or golf?

Santa Sabina gymnasts win in NZ

6 Joeys in teams to play Irish boys

Rosebank sports awards

Conversation: John O’Neill, Soccer Australia supreme - Joeys boy in a very different ball game ...

BROADER SOCIETY: John O’Neill ‘grateful to the Marist Brothers’

By Chris Lindsay

“I have a lot to be grateful to the Marist Brothers for,” says John O’Neill. “As an order they brought and instilled in you a real sense of what is now called social justice.”

John, an old boy of St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, and former managing director of the State Bank, was the man in charge of the Australian Rugby Union until just after last year’s World Cup.

He is now head of Soccer Australia and attempting to re-vitalise the game here. O’Neill says he has tried to live up to the standards he was taught at Joeys during his working life despite occasionally difficulties, especially as a banker.

“There was a real equality and fairness that came out in an all-boarding school like Joeys,” he says. “There were 800–900 boys from all walks of life brought together.

“We had that irreverence that comes from an all boys school, plus the Marist Brothers instilling in you a genuine feeling of how lucky you were to be educated in that way, the sacrifices your parents were making and a sort of grounding in the basic fundamentals of Catholicism.

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