Ballarat City Rowing Club<\/a> in 1950. I was 19. And about six weeks later, the shed was burnt down,\u201d the 95-year-old said.<\/p>\n\u201cAnd St Patrick’s College invited us to use their boat shed on the condition that we coached some of their boys.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so I was really coaching before I knew what I was talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, with mentors himself, and with knowledge, common sense and patience, O\u2019Brien became a coach that taught Olympians like Paul Reedy and Anthony Edwards, which made him feel proud.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did a lot of school coaching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose boys then continued on and those that were encouraged because of them being good boys were looked after down in Melbourne at Melbourne Uni and Mercantile and so forth, and then they were up for selection for state crews and interstate, or nationals and so forth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve had about 10 or 15 boys and some girls going through to Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
He loved training because he would be \u201cimparting knowledge to the kids and whoever was hanging around to hear anything\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m fortunate in one respect that they took notice of me for some reason,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien said he loved rowing because \u201cit kept you honest\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose you never learn how to row at all,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s always something you should polish up on.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien has four sons and a daughter.<\/p>\n
He wanted to thank his late wife June, who knew whether he had had a good day\u2019s training by how hard he closed the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A lifetime of coaching rowing has led Kevin O\u2019Brien to a King\u2019s Birthday Honour. O\u2019Brien has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the sport. He coached St Patrick\u2019s College rowers between 1950 and 1960, and 1966 and 2010. Alongside training school teams, he worked with clubs from Melbourne to […]<\/p>\n
Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":123073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-123034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nO\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Legendary rowing coach Kevin O\u2019Brien has been recognised with an OAM for his decades of service, mentoring St Patrick\u2019s College rowers and training future Olympians.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Legendary rowing coach Kevin O\u2019Brien has been recognised with an OAM for his decades of service, mentoring St Patrick\u2019s College rowers and training future Olympians.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-07T18:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/06\/Feature-Image-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris O'Leary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris O'Leary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris O'Leary\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/04d05b8986af5e5cfc4f47d99ba8ab8e\"},\"headline\":\"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-07T18:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":325,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/Feature-Image-3.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/\",\"name\":\"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing - Ballarat Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/Feature-Image-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-07T18:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Legendary rowing coach Kevin O\u2019Brien has been recognised with an OAM for his decades of service, mentoring St Patrick\u2019s College rowers and training future Olympians.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/Feature-Image-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/Feature-Image-3.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Ballarat rowing stalwart Kevin O\u2019Brien. Photo: Christopher O\u2019Leary.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ballarat Times\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Ballarat Times\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/BALT.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/BALT.png\",\"width\":739,\"height\":98,\"caption\":\"Ballarat Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/04d05b8986af5e5cfc4f47d99ba8ab8e\",\"name\":\"Chris O'Leary\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/author\\\/chrisoleary\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing - Ballarat Times","description":"Legendary rowing coach Kevin O\u2019Brien has been recognised with an OAM for his decades of service, mentoring St Patrick\u2019s College rowers and training future Olympians.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing - Ballarat Times","og_description":"Legendary rowing coach Kevin O\u2019Brien has been recognised with an OAM for his decades of service, mentoring St Patrick\u2019s College rowers and training future Olympians.","og_url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/","og_site_name":"Ballarat Times","article_published_time":"2026-06-07T18:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/06\/Feature-Image-3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chris O'Leary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris O'Leary","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/"},"author":{"name":"Chris O'Leary","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#\/schema\/person\/04d05b8986af5e5cfc4f47d99ba8ab8e"},"headline":"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing","datePublished":"2026-06-07T18:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/"},"wordCount":325,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/06\/Feature-Image-3.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/","name":"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing - Ballarat Times","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/06\/Feature-Image-3.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-07T18:00:00+00:00","description":"Legendary rowing coach Kevin O\u2019Brien has been recognised with an OAM for his decades of service, mentoring St Patrick\u2019s College rowers and training future Olympians.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/06\/Feature-Image-3.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/06\/Feature-Image-3.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Ballarat rowing stalwart Kevin O\u2019Brien. Photo: Christopher O\u2019Leary."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/obrien-awarded-oam-for-service-to-rowing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"O\u2019Brien awarded OAM for service to rowing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/","name":"Ballarat Times","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#organization","name":"Ballarat Times","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2021\/10\/BALT.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2021\/10\/BALT.png","width":739,"height":98,"caption":"Ballarat Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#\/schema\/person\/04d05b8986af5e5cfc4f47d99ba8ab8e","name":"Chris O'Leary","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/author\/chrisoleary\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123034"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=123034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}