ACS Journalism Scholarship

Our ACS Journalism Scholarship is run with the support of Holmesglen TAFE, courtesy of Simone Wearne. A short bio of Simone is included below. Also on this page find past Scholar’s experiences and links to all our Scholar’s published articles.

Simone Wearne is the Course Leader for Sports Degrees at Holmesglen Institute. From a baseball background, Simone represented Australia for a decade on the Women’s Australian Baseball Team, whilst going on to Manage the team for three World Cup events (including a bronze medal in Japan, 2014).

Simone was the co-MVP at the 2002 Women’s World Series tournament in Florida, named All-World pitcher at the 2006 Women’s Baseball World Cup in Taiwan, and twice was awarded Australian Women’s Baseball Player of the Year by Baseball Australia (2007 & 2008). She was the youngest and first female inducted into the Australian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.  

Simone has a Master of Business Administration and is currently undertaking further post-graduate study in teaching and learning. Her passion lies in community grassroots sport, with long time involvement in various voluntary positions since her teenage years.

The Journalism Scholar for 2025 is Lorenzo Di-Mauro Hayes. Lorenzo will be the scholar during his second year studying the Bachelor of Sports Media course at Holmesglen and as a contributor for the Holmesglen sports degrees publication team ‘Extra Time’.

He has written articles for Extra Time as well as produced and appeared on the Extra Time podcast and has discussed among many other sports: Australian Football, American Football, Cricket, Horse Racing, Darts and Field Hockey. As part of Extra Time, Lorenzo now co-hosts a podcast specific to the sport of darts entitled ‘The 9-Dart Podcast’.

In 2024, Lorenzo also took up a role as commentator for Hockey Victoria’s Premier League with matches being streamed at watchmysportlive.tv and regularly discussing sports issues and history on social media, under his own name. He is passionate about improving and growing cricket and through that lens will many of his articles be written.

Past ACS Journalism Scholar’s Experiences:

Our inaugural scholar (2021), Donal Wilson said:

“To be the inaugural recipient of the Australian Cricket Society (ACS) Journalism Scholarship was a very proud honour.

To learn about writing from has been a big step forward in my journalism career. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the ACS dinners and luncheons getting the opportunity to meet former international cricketers, and fellow ACS members.

However, it’s been interviewing the players and writing their stories that I’ve enjoyed the most.

Overall, I’m very grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to be part of the ACS community and meet so many nice people.”

Our 2022 scholar Sam Coulson said:

“My time in the ACS has been wonderful. I have not only improved my writing ability but have been consumed by many great stories from legends of the game. Thanks to Ken for working one-on-one with me and helping me immensely and thanks to everyone else within the society also.”

From our 2023 scholar, Kobe Jacobs:

“Being able to write for the Australian Cricket Society was a very enjoyable experience. Writing during a year when the Australian Men’s team had the Ashes, World Test Championship and ODI World Cup all at stake, made writing each piece much more stimulating. Getting to work under John Harms, who was a great mentor throughout my time writing for the ACS was advantageous. No doubt has my ability to write improved due to John. I’d like to thank everyone at the Society for making me feel so welcome, I’m grateful to have gotten to this opportunity.”

For more information or to apply for future scholarships, contact us at info@australiancricketsociety.com.au

Past Scholars

2021 Donal Wilson
2022 Sam Coulson
2023 Kobe Jacobs
2024 Liam McCullagh
2025 Lorenzo Di-Mauro Hayes