The international season continues to showcase the strength of Mercantile Rowing Club, with an outstanding month highlighted by the Henley Royal Regatta and a busy schedule of World Championship events still to come.

We wish Susannah Lutze PLY every success as she competes at the World Under 23 Championships. Susannah has already enjoyed an exceptional international campaign, winning gold in the PR3 Pair and bronze in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four at World Cup 3 in Lucerne. The PR3 Mixed Coxed Four is a Paralympic event, making these results an exciting milestone in her rowing journey.

Susannah Lutze in Lucerne

Henley Royal Regatta once again demonstrated the depth, quality and ambition of our High Performance program. Across the week, Mercantile crews raced with confidence and purpose, proving that our athletes belong on the world stage. Every crew represented the Club with professionalism, determination and pride.

A sincere thank you to everyone who supported our Henley campaign, whether by travelling to cheer on our athletes or contributing financially to make these opportunities possible. Your support plays a vital role in our athletes' success. A special thank you also to Sean Colgan for once again hosting the now traditional Mercantile Cocktail Party at Leander Club, a wonderful opportunity for our international community to reconnect and celebrate Mercantile together.

The international calendar continues through August, beginning with the World Rowing Under 19 Championships, where Mercantile members Piper Hallam and Emma Peele will represent Australia in the Women's Pair, coached by Will Achermann. Their selection is the culmination of months of dedicated preparation through a long Melbourne winter, often training in the early mornings with only a handful of crews still on the water.

Piper, Emma and Will after morning training

We also congratulate our members selected for the World University Games in London, Canada:
•    Mackenzie Kopke-Veldhuis – Women's Four
•    Lucy Gillon – Women's Four
•    Georgia Campbell – Women's Double Scull

The international season concludes with the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam from 24–30 August, where Mercantile will once again be strongly represented:
•    Paige Barr and Hayley Verbunt – Women's Eight
•    Emmie Frederico - Women's Pair
•    Fergus Hamilton, Jack Robertson and Austin Reinehr – Men's Eight
•    Noel Donaldson – Coach, Men's Four

Seeing Mercantile members competing across junior, under 23, university, para and senior international pathways is a reflection of the strength of our coaching, athlete development and club culture. It is something every member of our community can be proud of.

As we look ahead to the 2026–27 domestic season, there is genuine excitement about what lies ahead. Thank you to our coaches, volunteers, committee members, supporters, donors, members and families who contribute so much to the success of our Club. Your commitment continues to make these opportunities possible, and we are incredibly grateful for your ongoing support.

Gina Peele

A busy time internationally for Mercantile Athletes. After strong Australian showings at the lead up World Cups all eyes turn to Amsterdam for the World Championships. All senior squads (Women, Men’s & Para) are fine tuning and finalising crew combinations as we go to press. Our Mercantile cohort are well placed in each team to feature prominently, and we have high hopes for strong results in August.

Paige Barr on the way to the podium at World Cup 3 Lucerne Photo: Ben Tufnell

Our World Junior Pair are heading to Bulgaria for their world championships after a very strong training block here at home. Piper and Emma under the impressive guidance of Will Achermann have shown great growth in the preparation phase and are producing strong speed. With Plovdiv being a known fast course we are excited to see how they race!

Recruiting
Whilst our senior athletes have been largely away the recruiting continues in the building of each of our squads for the 2026/27 season. New faces in both Rhett's and Ed's squads are common at this time of year and we are excited by the quality of our new recruits thus far.  Both our Men’s and Women’s squads are growing and pleasingly across both sweep and scull classes.
As our returning athletes gear up we will be returning to our “Big Boat Saturday” sessions where all squads mix as large flotillas of Mercantile crews head out to the port.

Next season
Our key activity at the moment is finalising our key date calendar and overlaying the national dates with our key performance events.

Our next outing will be “Red & White” cup an initiative between Mercantile, Mosman (NSW) & KAND (QLD) which we will host here in Melbourne in September.

Coaching team
Our coaching team is now in place for 26/27. Ed Ryan and Rhett Spiller are our lead men’s and women’s youth coaches, this will take into account our target junior development program.  We are hopeful of Will Achermann also providing some key HP coaching support across the season on his return. 

Scott Rowe

While the Melbourne winter has well and truly settled in over the Yarra, the energy and momentum down at the boatshed remain strong. July has been a productive month of winter development, international representation, and reflection as we wrap up the 2025/26 season.

Junior Winter Training Program
This month marked the successful completion of our Junior Winter Training Program (JWTP). We welcomed over 90 young athletes to the club for an intensive 8-week block designed to build the technical and physical foundations required for the 2027 season. The program delivered hyper-tailored training across three targeted year-level streams, including a Year 9 ergometer masterclass, a Year 10 hybrid on-water and land squad drawing on elite school alumni expertise, and a Year 11 high-performance immersion directly into our U21 Youth Squad. The dedication shown by these rowers during the freezing winter mornings has been outstanding, and the future of the club is in excellent hands.

Hive of activity with junior program - photo: Giselle Jozsa

International and Henley Representation
It has been a significant period for our elite pathways on the world stage. I add my recognition of the Mercantile members named in the Australian Rowing Teams, celebrating their relentless dedication to high-performance training and their outstanding performances on the international stage. We also commend our Wargrave women’s eight, a Thames men’s eight, and a Wyfold men’s four who made the journey to the UK to race at the Henley Royal Regatta. Representing the white through-stripe on the famous reach requires incredible dedication, and all three crews have done the club proud.

Coaching Acknowledgements
An exceptional season relies on the leadership and commitment of our coaches. As we officially close the chapter on the 2025/26 season, the club extends its sincere gratitude to our coaching team.

Thank you to Ed Ryan, Rhett Spiller, Susie Franklin, Peter Sommerville, Tim Frederico, Annabelle Eaton and Scott Cockle for their tireless efforts, leadership, and support of our athletes day in and day out.

Finally, a distinct thank you to Head Coach Scott Rowe. Leading a program of our scale requires tremendous vision and stamina, and Scott’s leadership has kept Mercantile ambitious, unified, and highly competitive.

Go Mercs!
Alexander Clarke

Your Foundation had another exceptional year thanks to the generosity of our great donors. Their work enables so much to happen at the Club. These members donated an outstanding $491,000 in 2025-26 financial year, a record. Combined with excellent investment returns, the capital of the Foundation now stands at $4 million. As 4% of the capital is paid to the Club annually, grants to the Club continue to grow rapidly.

We welcome Leeanne and Andrew Ambrose, and Majella and Michael Donovan as Benefactors to the Foundation, Martin & Julie Aitken and Steve Macek as Bequestors and Douglas family, Michael Kelly and Steve Macek as Members. Thank you for ensuring the future of our Club.

The five objectives of the Foundation are:

• Boathouse (Sprigg Fund)
• Equipment (Frederico Fund)
• Athlete support (Colgan Fund)
• Volunteer (Cooper Fund)
• Coaching (Bilney Fund)

Last year, the Foundation funded two Empacher 4-/4x, five Sykes pairs, a Filippi pair, a Filippi scull, sculling blades and five rowing ergs and bike ergs. In addition, athlete grants of $16,500 were provided. This was more than budgeted but the need was important enough to bring forward some of the 2026-27 grants.

The Foundation is a critical part of the Club and it needs your support to enable it to grow substantially and so do justice to these five objectives.

With the absences of many on school holiday trips and others following their children to rowing events in Europe, the masters still manage their morning rows. The aim is to boat 3 men and a women's masters eight at the Head of the Yarra so training is intense. We are still looking for more women to join the squad.

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 42 - Sue Chapman-Popa: A Pioneer, an Olympian, a Coach, and the Mother of Olympic Gold - part 1
Episode 43 - Sue Chapman-Popa: Coaching, Parenting & Building the Next Generation - part 2
Episode 44 - Andrew Triggs Hodge: Three Gold Medals. One Relentless Mindset. 
Episode 45 - Neil Hewitt: The boy who became an Olympic Coxswain.

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.

Mercantile Strategy

As Mercantile Rowing Club develops its strategy for the next five years, we are still seeking input from our members. Your feedback will help shape the future direction of Mercantile, ensuring we continue to build on our proud history while creating opportunities for future generations of rowers, coaches, volunteers and supporters.  We invite all members to take a few minutes to complete the Strategic Planning Survey and contribute to the next chapter of Mercantile Rowing Club.

Mercantile Rowing Club Strategic Research Survey – Fill out form

Thank you Bibi

Bibi Colgan has kindly donated a box of rechargeable lights for Mercantile crews training before dawn. There is now no excuse for crews going out without lights. Thank you Bibi.

From the archives

The David Browne Empacher eight is named after a non-rower. Some years ago the Late Arthur Atkins DFC decided that he wanted to buy the Club another eight. Arthur was a surviving Lancaster pilot from WWII, one of the lucky ones. He had one condition, it was named after his good friend David Browne, a fellow Lancaster pilot who died over Germany on a mission. They had shared many good times together in training and during their adventures on the way to Britain across the USA. David was a distinguished individual, Captain of MGS and an excellent athlete. The 2016 boat naming was a special event with family members attending.

Athur is third from the right

Life Membership of RV Umpires

Andrew Guerin was recently presented with the RV Umpires Commission life membership award for 40+ years of umpiring service to Rowing Victoria, 30 of which were as an International umpire officiating at Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cups. Locally he chaired the Rowing Australia Umpires Committee and accreditated the umpires program with Sports Australia and in the process prepared umpiring training programs. Of course he was President of the Jury at many Australian Rowing Championships. His megaphone has not yet been hung up and 50 years beckons.

• World Under 23 Championships, Duisburg GER - 23-26 July 2026
• World Under 19 Championships, Plovdiv, BUL - 6-9 Aug 2026
• FISU World University Games, London, CAN - 13-15 Aug 2026
• World Championships, Amsterdam, NED - 24-30 Aug 2026
• Red & White Cup - 26th September - tenatative
• Golden Oar, Canberra ACT - 30-1 Nov 2026
• Foundation Donors' Luncheon - 25th November 2026
• Head of the Yarra - 28 Nov 2026