This round traditionally is the horror round for player availability with the first night of school holidays, and with some schools on holidays for a week already, this year was no exception. But we did get all teams on the park, thanks to all the hard work of our age co-ordinators. Thanks also to all the players who moved around and doubled up to help out.

Juniors now have two weeks off for the school holidays, a great time to reflect where we are. The juniors are performing well, and having fun. Two teams remain undefeated – under 16 mixed shield and mixed pennant, with a large portion of our junior teams sitting in the four. Credit to all the teams that are out there having fun, enjoying and learning.

A big night at Farm Rd, was slightly reduced with Mentone forfeiting their Under 18 match, giving the black team their first win.

The under 14 mixed shield team started the night at Farm Rd with Dave Ephraums standing in for Josh as coach. The result – a much needed 2-1 win over Brumbies with a neat goal to Ed and Lachie, with the defence of the team continuing to star. The win keeps them fourth on the ladder on equialisation points.

The 16 mixed shield were next on the night against the fast, fit and big Donnie team. With Craig winging his way to South Africa and Davin as support crew for Carlin also flitting away, Lachie Paice stepped in to help the team. Not the best game by the team, but a 2-1 win on the board – nice goal Dom with hard work in the shemozzle paying off and a great goal by Nick to get the first score on the board. The team remaining top of the ladder, four points ahead of Waverley.

Dom Eddy scoring

The under 18 red team, filled with black team players to help out took away with the game against Knox in an 8-1 win, Jarrad Camille and Cooper Green Shiel making their mark with four and three goals apeice.

Out in the Eastern “suburbs” 14 and 16 pennant headed to Casey. The 14 pennant team, suddenly with only 10 players, came away with a big win 4-0. The team are doing a great job, third on the ladder, above Bayside. The 16 pennant team continued the trend in a challenging match against bottom of the ladder Casey for a a 6-2 win. This super team remain undefeated, 7+ points ahead of second on the ladder.

Under 14 girls at Brumbies were helped Bec McNess and India Rose Ioannou from under 12 girls together with Issy Figureira from 14 south helping out. Thanks.

Under 14 south were first on at Dendy St against a strong Mornington team, where the Southern players are continuing to improve and the score did not do them justice. Danny had a strong game with some great saves, congratulations to Oscar on scoring your first goal, and a special mention to Wean who keeps putting in so hard.

Chris Abaniel doing his best to stay dry

On Saturday morning the under 12 shield girls, like many teams this weekend played with 10 players to take the points 1-0. The under 12 boys shield and pennant had the home games in the cold wet conditions. With many away the teams were undermanned, a great credit to the boys on the results. Under 12 boys shield went down 3-0 to TEM, while the 12 pennant boys, with quite a bit of help from the half field players, gave Southern a third win against Casey for the weekend in the 2-1 win, with goals to Hamish and Lachlan Thomas. Great work boys.