What’s on at Southern?

It was a tougher round of hockey for all this weekend.

The fixture gods gave three 6.30 pm Saturday games spread across Melbourne – Doncaster, State Hockey Centre and Frankston, those together with a late change of Friday night to Drouin, helped the younger players get some hours for their L plates and some challenged teams on numbers.

All junior shield and pennant teams now have points on the board which is a great start to the season. Junior fixtures are NOT final for the season. Regrading and some changing of competition structures happens after round 3, so please keep an eye on the current fixtures at https://suhc.com.au/fixtures/ and re-check closer to the game.

Congratulations to our latest players selected to play for Victoria. Lulu Stansby, George Papadopoulos and Ashton Williams have been selected in the Under 12 School Sports Victoria teams to play in Newcastle in August.

The clubs goalie training provided by our super goalie coaches has something the club has always been proud of. Ashton’s selection, another state goalie for Southern, is a testament to the hard work of the goalie coaches.

George and Lulu have been members of the club for years, although only 11 years old, the care and support our coaches provide through regular training, as well as specialist training such as Southern United Hockey Academy, once again has proven its worth for these players. Congratulations.

Premiers League Round 4 – Match 3

What an afternoon at Farm Rd with some great hockey on display. The afternoon started with the women’s reserves against Hawthorn. The Hawthorn women’s reserves have had a good start to the season with only the one loss, after finishing second on the ladder last year. The women had a strong game to finish a 3-3 draw, a great result for Dom Blatherwick in her first game in goals for reserves.

Second in the afternoon was the might and speed of the Hawthorn women. At half time our women were down 0-1, a great first half, as the game progressed Hawthorn just got stronger taking the points 0-3.

The men’s game was explosive. The might of Hawthorn’s men has decreased over the past years, and were well and truly frustrated in the game, with Southern taking control in the second half, for a 7-3 win, with two goals to Matt l’Hullier, and the rest scored by the youngsters: Craig Marais, Macca Thompson, Al Hart, Nathan Ephraums and Josh Mulder. With 9 goals for the 5 games this season, Matt is the leader goal scorer for the league so far.

The men’s reserves finished the day with a 3-1. Not a bad day at Farm Rd.

Five games of the season are now down, in a twenty round season, with a lot of hockey still to go, and the teams are performing well. The women’s premier league are sixth on the ladder with 10 points, and fourth, fifth and sixth are all on 10 points. The men’s firsts are fifth, also on 10 points.

Women’s Round 4

The women’s pennant and metro teams continue their strong form this season.

The women’s pennant E team, with the challenging 6.30pm game at PHC against Mornington performed well for a 3-0 win, giving them their second win for the season.

The metro A ladies, still missing full back extraordinaire Nicola Pratt, did the job against Old Haileyburians to give them their first win, 4-0, after draws in round 2 and 3. The young girls as always performed well with Nicola, Liana and Hayley V scoring, but the more experienced also got on the board with a goal to Suzie.

The pennant B team have started the season strongly, and although only three matches in, the game against Hawthorn was the two top of the ladder teams playing. The close game resulted in Hawthorn just with a 2-1 win. The ladies took the chance to celebrate Simone’s 18th birthday. Happy birthday Simone

The women’s met B team were the last team to take to the pitch on Sunday against the always challenging Dandenong.

Men’s Round 4

The men’s pennant A team had the horror game, 6.30pm at the hockey centre. The score line did not represent the close game. Hawthorn scored early, and were up 2-1 at half time. Hawthorn got away late in the second half, with the Southern boys scoring on the siren to finish 5-2 down.

Pennant C had the dream game time, 2pm at Farm Rd, in the nice warm sun. With a very different game to the week before they were clearly too strong for Hawthorn with a 4-1 win. Next week the two undefeated teams, also the 2018 promoted teams, Essendon and Southern, have a rematch of the pennant D final at Farm Rd at 12.30 Saturday, it should be interesting.

Men’s pennant D and metro A had the late Saturday games at Donnie, how lucky were they? The pennant D team could not match it with Donnie going down 4-1.

The metro A at 6.30pm was a replay of the 2017 grand final, with both teams undefeated in the first three rounds. Donnie proved too strong in a family game for Southern, with Mitch and Michael Campbell, Chris and Liam Lewis and not to be outdone Jacques removed his goalie pads from the previous game and played with his father Louis. While the ever versatile Chris Abaniel slipped on the pads.

Metro B were also playing in a top of the table clash, which resulted in a 1-1 draw with St Bede’s.

Juniors Round 2

Friday night was cold and long, especially long for the under 16 mixed pennant team who had a last minute change of fixture and had the trek to Drouin. The trek was clearly worthwhille at half time the boys were 2-1 up and managed to keep that lead to finish 4-3, with two goals to Anthony Papadopoulos, and one to Brendan Reddell and Andre Fernandez. Great to have you back Andre.

The under 14 mixed shield had the players back from Wollongong, but sill suffering some losses from injury. Thanks Isaac for filling in. A close match at Elgar park, and some hard work to save a few penalty corners in the late part of the match finished 1 all draw. While the under 14 girls shield at Farm Rd had a tougher night going down 4-0.

At Doncaster, the under 16 mixed shield were pleased to have nearly full contingent of players, and a first hit out as a team. Although most have played at the club for years, the team has never played together. After 10 minutes working out how they all worked,in which Finn scored a goal after a great steal from the Donnie defenders, the team hit its stride with a 6-1 win in a great team game, with two goals to Craig and Davin, and one apiece to Finn and Max . Welcome to Southern Finn.

The under 16 south teams had a switch of results this week, with red getting a win over St Bedes, and the black team went down to the stronger Bayside team. Thanks to Kate and Will for doubling up.

The under 14 south team continues to show promise although going down 3-0 to Frankston. Interesting case of disappearing face masks I hear, when the Frankston team manager removed the masks after the diligent Southern parent had already done their job of moving our masks at half time. The Frankston team manager rectified the situation at speed, not quite requiring resuscitation after the sprint down the field, it did win him the play of the day chokky bar though.

The under 18 competition has a very different flavour to last year with only six teams in the competition. Some work still happening to finalise our teams, thanks Hamish Lambert for filling in and Sammie Chew for swapping to black team for the night. The red team finished ahead of Mentone yellow, while black went down to St Bedes.

The boys under 12 shield and pennant team had a tough week last week. The teams are very young and the skills and the future of the club are safe with these young kids. Saturday morning saw the under 12 boys pennant head to Berwick for a nice and early game. Great to get a point on the board with a 0-0 draw, and thanks Casey for providing the umpire. The under 12 boys shield proved they don’t give up after last weeks tough game, with a 2-0 win over TEM this week. Some great saves by Ashton and goals to Mack Harris and Jake Vorrath.

With some late positive fixtures changes the under 10 and under 12 half field teams enjoyed the egg and bacon rolls at Farm Rd, oh, and a game of hockey. The under 10 quarter field players once again had the sun to start the morning, before the day clouded over.

The under 10 half field boys and girls then took to the pitch against Mentone. The games were close with the boys a 1-1 draw and the girls just going down.

The Under 12 boys and girls half field under the guidance of Amy and Phoebe respectively then had their chance. First game of hockey for many of the boys as they had a bye in round 1, Mentone got ahead of the boys but great first game for the boys with goals to Will Pepper and Lachlan Gorton – great first game boys. The under 12 district girls in the typical sharing style of Phoebe, shared one of the Southern players with Footscray as Footscray were short, thanks Lilian for helping them out. That is a true team spirit. The southern girls won 2-0, with goals to Juliet and Holly. Holly joined on Thursday, now that is q quick turn around between joining and first goal, we are happy to have you as part of Southern.

Last in the morning of junior hockey at Farm Rd was the under 12 shield girls with Julian directlng for their 1-0 win over Brusnwick.

Fixtures Round 5 Seniors

There will probably be some movement in the juniors fixtures. Please check the most up to date fixtures at the fixtures will change between today and Friday/Saturday, so please check at the lats minute, and keep an eye on club communications. https://suhc.com.au/fixtures/