Mercantile on the World Stage

Mercantile Rowing Club has been proudly represented on the international stage this season, with members representing Australia across the U19, U23 and Open World Championships, as well as the World University Games.

It has been an exciting international campaign, with Mercantile athletes achieving outstanding results and continuing the Club’s proud tradition of representation at the highest levels of our sport.

Gold for Susannah Lutze PLY

We congratulate Susannah Lutze PLY on winning GOLD in the PR3 Single Scull at the U23 World Championships.

Susannah produced a commanding performance in the final, leading from the start and maintaining control of the race all the way to the finish. The result is an outstanding achievement in the middle of her international campaign, with Susannah now turning her attention to the World Rowing Championships in the Netherlands, where she will represent Australia in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four.

Congratulations Susannah, and all the best for the next stage of your campaign.

World Championship Bronze for Emma Peele and Piper Hallam

There was more international success for Mercantile at the U19 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, with the Mercantile Junior Women’s Pair of Emma Peele and Piper Hallam, coached by Will Achermann, claiming a brilliant bronze medal.

Piper and Emma attacked the final from the start, leading the race through the first 1200 metres. With a tailwind contributing to some exceptionally fast racing, the pair fought hard all the way to the line to secure their place on the World Championship podium.

Their time of 7:17 places them among the fastest Junior Women’s Pairs ever, an outstanding achievement on the world stage.

Congratulations to Piper, Emma and Will on a fantastic international campaign and a well-deserved World Championship bronze medal.  Piper and Emma have been completing their Year 12 studies at St Catherine's School and Firbank Grammar school, whilst training for the World Championships. 

World University Games

Mercantile was also proudly represented at the World University Games in Ontario, Canada, by Georgie Campbell, Lucy Gillon and Mackenzie Kopke-Volpe.

Georgie and her doubles partner progressed to the A Final of the Women’s Double Scull, finishing sixth, while Lucy and Mackenzie competed in the Women’s Four, producing a strong performance to win the B Final.

Congratulations to Georgie, Lucy and Mackenzie on representing Australia and Mercantile with distinction.

Next Stop – World Rowing Championships

The international season continues, and we now look forward to the World Rowing Championships, with another strong contingent of Mercantile athletes representing Australia.

We wish the very best to Paige Barr and Hayley Verbunt in the Women’s Eight, Emmie Frederico in the Women’s Pair, Jack Robertson, Austin Reinehr and Fergus Hamilton in the Men’s Eight, and Susannah Lutze PLY in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four.

To have Mercantile athletes represented across the Junior, U23, University and Senior international levels is something of which the entire Club can be enormously proud. We congratulate every athlete, coach and supporter who has contributed to these campaigns and wish our Australian representatives every success at the World Championships.

Back in Melbourne – Building for the Season Ahead

While our international athletes have been flying the Mercantile flag around the world, there is also plenty of energy back home on the Yarra River.

Our Henley squads are back in training alongside our school leaver and youth programs, led by Scott Rowe (Head Coach), Rhett Spiller (Women’s Coach) and Ed Ryan (Men’s Coach).

It has been particularly impressive to see eight Men’s and Women’s Eights on the water on Saturday mornings. The sight of so many Mercantile crews training together is a fantastic reflection of the depth, momentum and sense of community continuing to build across the Club.

Saturday mornings at Mercantile, however, are about much more than what happens on the water. A big thank you to our Breakfast Crew and Mercantile Shop supporters, who continue to create the welcoming and connected club atmosphere that makes these mornings such an important part of life at Mercantile.

With athletes, coaches, volunteers and supporters all contributing, it is fantastic to see the Club busy, connected and building towards another exciting season.

Celebrating 40+ Years of Membership

As we celebrate the next generation of Mercantile athletes and those representing the Club on the world stage, it is equally important to recognise the members whose longstanding commitment has helped shape Mercantile into the Club it is today.

We congratulate the following members who have reached the remarkable milestone of 40+ years of membership at Mercantile Rowing Club:

• Andrew Ambrose
• John Boultbee
• Simon Morrison
• Sean Ryan
• Paul Schreier
• Peter Somerville
• William Webster

More than four decades of membership represents an extraordinary commitment to Mercantile. We thank each of these members for their longstanding connection, contribution and support of the Club.

From our 40+ year members, to our School Leavers and Youth athletes, through to our Australian representatives competing on the world stage, it is this connection across generations that continues to make Mercantile such a special rowing community.

New Gym Equipment

We are very fortunate to have recently received a significant donation of weights and strength training equipment from a generous supporter of Mercantile Rowing Club.

This equipment will be a valuable addition to our training environment, enabling our athletes to undertake more of their strength and conditioning training within the Mercantile sheds and complementing the work they do on the water.

Our strength and conditioning program is led by Jordan Nolan, Strength and Conditioning Coach, who continues to support our athletes in developing the strength, resilience and physical preparation.

We are extremely grateful for this generous contribution to the Club. Support such as this directly benefits our athletes and helps us continue to strengthen the high-performance training environment at Mercantile.

This month we have been re-assembling the troops as they return from their overseas campaigns and mid-year breaks and get our winter cycle rolling. 

Good luck to our Senior Athletes who are ready to go at this year's World Championships in Amsterdam!

Our Junior women's pair and Uniroos athletes have now completed their campaigns with an incredible Bronze to Emma & Piper our Junior pair and an A final at Unigames from Georgia and a win in the B final from Lucy and Mackenzie.

Our American college students are all starting to head back for their academic years, it has been great to have them around across the winter.

We are in a fortunate position that with last year's base building our returning squad are reaping the benefit of better coping mechanisms for this time of year. We had our initial internal benchmarking 5k record a number of PBs across the squad with some of our top end athletes approaching and in some meeting the RA benchmarks which is an excellent place to be starting from. Continuing to learn from last year we are adopting a little more variety during winter prep whilst still building the sculling skills required for national selection events in the coming months.  

Our Coaching team are functioning well with both Ed's & Rhett's youth groups growing and starting to take shape and as a result the HP squad will look to grow as well as we ensure athletes at all levels and campaign objectives are looked after. We are excited that Will Acherman after his successful junior campaign will join with me in the HP group to be able to provide more eyes and specific programming as and when required.

It's exciting to see the youth squads coming together with athletes coming from a wide variety of school programs and locations, as the school year continues our school leavers are using the club as a break and refresh with opportunities to row on a Wednesday/Thursday or Friday for when it suits and our big boat Saturdays remaining popular with 8 VIIIs regularly heading out each weekend.

Overall, our current numbers are strong, and as a result the fleet is being fully used and the gym is humming. We have been very fortunate to receive courtesy of Tom Courtney a welcome gym refresh of some of our equipment with new trap bars, free weights, barbells and kettle bells. This is a significant contribution that we are incredibly appreciative of. We will as a result be remodelling the gym area to make best use of the limited space we have.   

With the large numbers within the squad there continues to be lots of boat activity and use. On Mondays we are regularly out with every single available and on Tuesdays and Fridays all of the pairs or doubles.  We need to work together as an entire club and not "borrow" back arms or seats etc from other boats if the one you're intending to use is lacking. So, it is pertinent to remind everyone of the importance of communication for boats that may have incurred damage during a session, we are needing to act urgently to ensure all boats remain useable so please if you have damaged anything regardless of fault we need to know so it can be rectified ASAP. Log into teams and place an incident report so we can keep everyone afloat.

As the days get warmer (please let that happen soon) so to the schools will be returning to the river so take care, make sure you have lights on and stay on the right side of the river or port.

HotY prep is ramping up. Masters are getting 1-2 eights out consistently each week. 

A few key dates:

• Each year Drew Ginn helps put together a great charity night for cancer.
  Come along and join the Mercs crew for a great night out: 
  https://aus.givergy.com/CobbledNights26/?controller=home
• Head of the Yarra Mercantile Dinner
  Save the date: Saturday November 28th for our first annual Mercs Masters HotY Dinner!

Andrew Rees, masters co-ordinator

Drew Ginn is keeping us glued to the red and white transistor with superb podcasts. To date in July we were blessed with the following.

Episode 46 - Eight Seconds and Nine Months: Teal Cohen on Getting Cut, Getting Strong and Getting Gold

Episode 47 - Alex Hill: Gold, Grit and More to Give

Episode 48 - Bobby Thatcher: Building Champions Without Chasing Medals

Episode 49 - The Boat Beside You Becomes the Coach - Scott Rowe

Episode 50 - Who Wins in Amsterdam? Noel Donaldson’s Worlds Preview 

Episode 51 - Ed Willes: The Eight – Built Through Failure, Forged for Gold

The Club is so lucky to have Drew undertake this great work which is appreciated by so many rowers both within the Club and in the wider rowing community. Thank you to primary sponsor Choice Capital, financial advice with purpose, outcomes that matter, and also to 777BC.

Australian men's eight tries out Sean Colgan

Normally what happens on tour stays on tour but this was too good to leave. Fergus Hamilton gave up his seat for Sean Colgan for a training row with the Aussie eight on Lake Varese. Sean excelled himself although did note that the high rating work was testing his limits. Thank you Ferg and great work Sean showing that at least some septuagenarians are holding it all together.

Sean in the Mercs gear in the six seat.

From the vault

Did you know that Mercantile has been the most consistently successful senior rowing club in Victoria? Since Mercantile broke into the senior ranks with 1895 Senior Four Championship, it has always been a senior club. No other club has had such a long period of success.

1895 Victorian Champion Four

PS: The stroke of this crew was Alex B Sloan who captained Mercantile to numerous premierships whilst at the same captaining Fitzroy Football Club to premierships in 1898 and 1899.

The Story of Victorian Rowing

Rowing Victoria is celebrating its 150th with a book on The Story of Rowing in Victoria written by Judith Buckrich and your editor Andrew Guerin. This book covers Victorian rowing from 1838 to present day and will be launched on 19th September at the RV Awards night. Books can be purchased from RV.

The Mercantile Shop has stocked up for the coming season.  Please jump online https://www.mercantile.org.au/shop or visit us at the club on Saturday mornings to purchase your kit.

The Mercantile Uniform for racing members includes:
•    Mercantile Club Issued T-shirt - drop in to collect yours
•    Mercantile 776BC Racing Suit
•    Mercantile Cap or Visor
•    Mercantile Navy 1/4 Zip or Crew Neck

Please note limited sizes are available for the Mercantile ¼ Zip Cotton Jumper, due to its popularity.

Other items available include:
•    Mercantile Puffer Vest and Jacket
•    Mercantile RB Sellars Workshirt
•    Mercantile Drink Bottle
•    776BC Short sleeve training top
•    776BC Long sleeve training top

• World Championships, Amsterdam, NED - 24-30 Aug 2026
• RV Awards night and 150th celebration - 19 Sep 2026 (bookings required)
• Red & White Cup - 26th September 2026- tentative
• Head of the Charles Boston USA - 16-18th Oct 2026
• Golden Oar, Canberra ACT - 30-1 Nov 2026
• RA Rower of the Year Awards, Sydney - 4 Nov 2026 (bookings required)
• Foundation Donors' Luncheon - 25th November 2026
• Head of the Yarra - 28 Nov 2026
• Mercs Masters HOTY Post Race Dinner - 28th November 2026