National Seniors

The inaugural Australian Open Volleyball Championships was held in 1962 in Melbourne, and was contested by only 3 mens teams, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. It wasn’t until 3 years later that a women’s division was added in 1965, and in the following years the other states of Tasmania, ACT and Western Australia joined the competition. Queensland’s debut at the tournament was in 1971 in Adelaide, which marked the first occasion that all 6 states, plus the ACT were represented.

The tournament ran annually for 22 years, and whilst Queensland fielded very strong sides in both the men’s and women’s divisions, winning many minor place medals, the best result was only ever a silver medal for both groups. In 1984 the inception of the National Volleyball League (NVL) saw the Australian Open Championships or National Seniors as they are known, deleted from the competition calendar for 2 years.

In 1986, the National Senior Championships were revived, to coexist with the NVL, and it was held in Brisbane. It was at this tournament that both Queensland teams finally broke their hoodoo, with both the men’s and women’s teams winning GOLD in front of a home crowd.

The last ever National Seniors was held in Melbourne in 1998, where the Pirates Men finished 3rd, the Viking Men 8th and Pirates Women 5th. Fitting that at the last ever tournament, the Most Valuable Player in the men’s division was awarded to a legend in Queensland Volleyball, Russell Borgeaud.

Year	Location	Open Men	Open Women
1971	Adelaide	6th	8th
1972	Sydney	4th	8th
1973	Launceston	7th	4th
1974	Canberra	6th	3rd
1975	Melbourne	3rd	3rd
1976	Brisbane	3rd	3rd
1977	Perth	2nd	4th
1978	Adelaide	3rd	3rd
1979	Sydney	3rd	3rd
1980	Devonport	4th	2nd
1981	Canberra	5th	3rd
1982	Shepparton	4th	6th
1983	Brisbane	5th	3rd
1984
1985
1986	Brisbane	1st	1st
1987
1988
1989	Sydney	3rd	5th
1990	Adelaide	5th	5th
1991	Brisbane	3rd	4th
1992	Melbourne	4th	5th
1993	Perth	3rd	3rd
1994	Canberra	2nd	2nd
1995	Sydney	2nd	2nd
1996	Cairns	2nd	3rd
1997	Adelaide	4th	6th
1998	Melbourne	3rd	5th