Which is probably why the St Patrick’s College year 10 student makes such a good debater.

In fact, the St Patrick’s team of Oscar, Xavier O’Shea and Ryan Mulheron have effectively argued their way to the Debating Association of Victoria C grade state titles in Melbourne on Wednesday night.

Along the way, they have argued – amongst other things - against illegal downloaders being prosecuted and that employers should be able to hire or fire employees based on their social media use.

Coming up against all-girls school Lauriston College at Caulfield Grammar on Wednesday, the boys will argue against western governments prioritising foreign aid over domestic social welfare.

The team successfully competed in five regional rounds at Ballarat High School in the Australian three-on-three debating style.

This led them to the finals rounds in Melbourne where they defeated Melbourne Grammar, Xavier College and Carlton’s Princes Hill Secondary College on their way to the final.

“I just like arguing in public,” Oscar said while Xavier said he was talked into debating by some friends who were taking part.

“The first year I did it, it was quite hard,” Xavier said.

The team usually finds out the topic on the Thursday before the debate.

A day of detailed research then follows on the Friday.

“We then write our topics and perfect them before the debate,” Oscar said.

“We usually put about four to five hours into it but we will do more before the final.”

However, for added variety, two secret topics have been thrown into the mix along the way, with the teams finding out what they were arguing only an hour before the debate.

The Debating Association of Victoria is a non-profit association which is the peak debating body in Victoria and runs large competitions for adults and schools across Victoria.

It also provides training and resources for debaters, teachers and adjudicators.

With more than 250 schools providing 1400 teams across 19 regions, culminating in the six-night finals series, the DAV Schools Competition is the largest English-language debating competition in the world. 

The St Patrick’s College year 12 debating team of James Parini, David O’Doherty and Liam O’Shea also unsuccessfully competed in the DAV A grade semi finals against St Kevin’s College.

However, they were highly commended for finishing in the top four teams in the state.