Two rounds into the newly expanded open age season for 2013 and SUHC’s men’s’ Victorian Premier League is fourth on the ladder with 4 points after a rousing first round victory at home against Waverley a week ago followed by a hard fought away draw with MCC yesterday.

The club’s first up win against Waverley was a first in many ways; the first time SUHC has won in round one of HV’s elite competition and the first time SUHC has beaten one of the top flight clubs in Victorian hockey, and all on the opening day of the club’s new pitch. A great and exciting start to the new season by the MVPL team!!

After such a memorable season’s opener, the risk of getting too far ahead of oneself is always there, and MCC is the club capable of dealing out some early season realism in this regard.

MCC scored first in a game in which saw both teams squander scoring opportunities then SUHC drew level through Todd McHardy only to surrender the lead soon after. SUHC evened it up again in the second half with a well worked field goal finished by Josh Ephraums as both sides tried to gain the final ascendency. A flurry of penalty corners at both ends could have seen either side steal a last gasp win, but in the end honours remained even.

In the MPL Reserves, a Cameron Paice penalty corner proved to be the difference in tightly contested but scrappy affair with SUHC finally prevailing over the Dees.

On Saturday at a sunny but cool Farm Road, SUHC hosted Albury/Wodonga in an engaging and entertaining WVL1 match. The final score saw the Albury/Wodonga 5-3 victors with Traleen Cumming scoring twice and Celine Donnet once for SUHC. Ultimately it was an unsatisfying outing for Southern who played well for much of the game but failed to capitalise on early scoring opportunities and suffered dearly from a number of defensive lapses. Nevertheless, it was a solid enough performance from this young and relatively inexperienced side with plenty of upside for the team and coaches to work on.