Well the under 15s had their weekend of indoor this weekend with the 15s hoping to take out the double crown like the 13s. They didn’t quite manage it, but it was close. The girls did take out the championships. The girls had a great start in the gold medal match, 3-0 up, and then 3 goals from Powerhouse had the score 3-3 at half time, and with Powerhouse scoring early in the 2nd half our girls were down 4-3. With a stoppage to clean up blood on the court with five minutes to go, it looked like it was over. But a very late short corner which resulted in a stroke conversion by Abbey finished the game four all. A shoot out followed also full of drama, with one of the one on one’s resulting in a stroke which was saved by our keeper Em Butler, giving our team the title. The team was made up of: Em Butler (GK), Laura loycke, Emily Hamilton Smith, Amy Lawton, Josie Lawton and Hayley Lambert, together with Gracie Geddis, Abbey O’Brien, Dekota Mark and Isabelle Hill from Mentone.
The under 15 boys were so close to making it to the gold medal match, winning their pool of Southern, Essendon, Camberwell and Brumbies. The second day saw a draw against Yarra, and a 3-4 loss to Altona to leave just so close just out of the big match. They played Waverley for the 3rd place and won 6-5. The boys team of Rylan Pease (GK), Thomas Curtis, Max Eddington, Sam Letts, Craig Marais, Billy Hanrahan, Christian van der Merwe, Ted Harvey, Eden Davis and Alex Cross from Brumbies. Craig Marais was leading goal scorer of the tournament with a massive 28 goals.
It has been a big three weeks of Victorian Junior Indoor Championships with the club doing itself proud. While the results themselves were impressive, the club camaraderie and community feeling from hockey was something even more impressive.
Thanks to the coaches of the five teams. Thanks to parents who coached Andrew McLoughney, Jason Jansz, and Oliver Lawton, and a special thanks to the players and coaches from the senior section Josh Ephraums, Michael Pearce, Jesse Workman and Aiden McLoughney who spent their time helping the juniors coaching over the three weekends. Josh coached the 15 boys, as well as co-coaching the 13 boys, Jesse worked with the 15 boys and girls, with Pearcey the 13 boys and Aiden the 18 boys. A huge amount of time with the big weekends and the training times.
To the parents who helped as team manager and other officials also a huge thank you. It was also great to see senior players attending to cheer the Southern teams.
The clubs across Melbourne worked with each other to find homes for all players. In Southern teams we had players from Mentone, Frankston, Mornington in under 13 girls, Mentone in Under 15 girls and Brumbies in Under 15 boys. While we had players play in teams for Mentone (U18G), Waverley (U18G) and TEM (U18B).
The results were also impressive, if a most successful club for the three junior championships existed, Southern would probably have taken it out, with the help of the players who joined us.
- Under 18 Boys – 4th. Making it through their pool 2nd and then only being beaten in the cross over matches.
- Under 18 Girls – Although Southern did not have a team, four Southern girls played in the Waverley team finishing 2nd, and one girl in the Mentone team who finished 3rd.
- Under 13 Boys – 1st. Finishing 2nd in their pool, and playing well enough to make the grand final, the boys pulled out all stops to win the gold medal
- Under 13 Girls – 1st. Undefeated for the whole tournament.
- Under 15 Boys – 3rd. Finishing the necessary first in their pool, a draw and a loss by one pushed them out of the gold medal match, to play the 3v4 and taking out third.
- Under 15 Girls . 1st. Finishing 2nd after the round robin with 2 draws and the rest wins, took on the gold medal in a penalty shoot out.
Thanks to all who made these three weekends and amazing experience for all.
