2023 has seen the introduction of a pre-season cup competition for the premier league teams. This cup provides some strong practice games for the teams to ready themselves for round 1 on 15th April.  The cup plays under the special rules as per Hockey One, with a  one one one ‘conversion’ chance after a field goal, and a shoot out if the game is a draw.

Fixtures and results for the premier league  can be found for the men and women on AltiusRT

Round 1 was at home at Farm Rd in blistering heat. With players about to transfer to the Under 21 championships unavailable and others not available, all clubs across the competition had some challenges with teams

The women hosted KBH, with 7 players who had not taken to the field for a premier league game before.  Congratulations to Stef Eade, Brylee Roberts, Louise Turner, Rene Hunter, Charlotte Carruthers, Annika Kraus and Heidi Heath.  A big welcome to Rene Hunter who moved to Melbourne this year and has joined the club as our premier league goal keeper.  Rene is part of the Australian Development Squad.

The team kept their cool after KBH has the first score on the board. Tas Nelson then scored with a field goal, and successfully carried out a conversion to take the team to a 2-1 lead, which they held to finish the game 2-1 up.

The men had a handful of young players who are also new to premier league, Lachie Thomas, Alex Desmond, Ed Hall and Tom Ferguson.

Hawthorn’s Finn Hodder was the first to score with a penalty corner. Tom Ferguson strength going in to the D won a penalty corner for Southern, which Matt L’Huillier swiftly put away.  Our next goal was a field goal from young George Papadopoulus, his conversion opportunity did not hit the mark. Some cards followed in the intense last quarter, and a last minute PC for Hawthorn pushed the score to 2-2.  With a shoot out for all games in PL cup, after the 5 efforts for both teams the score was 4-4 after a close time call for Carlin’s goal, moving  the shoot out to sudden death, with Hawthorn taking the shoot out 5-6. Giving the boys the 2 points for the draw, but not the extra point for the shoot out win.

The ball kids for the round in the heat were great, and we thank Grayson, Will, Aleisso, Julian, Zach, and Ed.