The premier leagues team visited the metropolis of Prahran for their games, playing MCC.

The men’s team took the points in a 3-1 win, with 14 year old Craig Marais scoring a goal in his third premier league game, with Nathan Ephraums and Michael Pearce scoring as well. The game also had the highlight of Ed saving a stroke. It is great to see the Ephraums and Marais brothers playing together in our premier league team. The men’s reserves had a lot tougher game against second on the ladder MCC with MCC taking the match 3-1.

The women’s MCC premier league teams are a stronger team than their men, and our women went down 4-1, with Sarah Breen from MCC doing the damage with three goals, and Kirsty Gardiner scored one from her penalty corner.  The women’s reserves team had the opposite result, a great win with MCC five spots ahead of Southern on the ladder, with goals to Ash Jones and Amy Beet.

Juniors were back on in force this weekend, with some great results. It is hard to believe this was round ten, and there are only four more rounds to go.  The juniors are in a good position with seven teams currently in the top four, and a couple just on the edge. Under 18, Under 16 mixed shield, Under 16 south black, under 16 girls pennant, under 14 girls and mixed shield,  under 14 mixed pennant, under 12 mixed and girls shield are all currently in the top four, while Under 16 mixed pennant and under 16 south red are fifth.

Three games at Mentone on Friday night had good results. Under 18 continue to perform strongly with a 3-0 win over Mentone at Mentone. Thanks to  Ben Rogalsky helping out the 18s. This leaves the 18s two points behind arch rivals/friends Burra on the ladder with Burra’s draw against Yarra.  Also at Mentone on Friday night the Under 16 mixed pennant had a 3-2 win with Marty Kulesza scoring two and Josh Madden one. This keeps them fifth on the ladder. Under 16 girls pennant achieved a 2-2 draw against Mentone. A great result with Mentone’s pennant team featuring five state players.  Goals to Alaina and Lara. This keeps the under 16 girls in the top four on equalisation points. Brilliant work Lex and team.

At Farm Rd on Friday night the under 14 girls had a win over Camberwell, the under 16 black team then had a strong 8-1 win over Waverley to put a big smile on Greg Edward’s face. Thanks to Alex Smith for stepping in as goalie.  Four goals to Jess Grant, who has nearly become a permanent fixture in the team, even with partner in crime Hayley disappearing for a few weeks, and three goals to Zac Adam-Gedge. The under 16 red team played a great game only going down 1-0 against Monash.  The two south teams are having a great season, fighting each other for fourth place on the ladder,  thanks so much to the super coaches of the south teams.  With four teams in the mixed competitions in under 16s, it is great to have all four teams in the top five at this stage. Hopefully we will see these boys move to men’s section in the next years giving some great depth to the men’s section.

Under 16 South Black after their win
 

The under 16 mixed shield were part of an extraordinary game at Yarra. Yarra bottom of the ladder, with zero points, had drawn with top of ladder Camberwell in their previous game, and as the game progressed, it became clear why.  With a mind boggling number of shots on goals, where Yarra goalie was clearly showing why he had been selected in the U16 SSV team,  Southern eventually made it a 4-1 win, with a hat trick to Carlin Walker.

The under 14 mixed shield tripped to Drouin, how lucky were they? Gippsland started strongly scoring a goal early on, given Gippsland had only scored two goals the whole season, this really fired the Gippsland players up, but they Southern players fired back with a 7-2 win.  A hat trick to Will Carruthers, and two apiece to Tyler Jacobs and Lachie Paice. Under 14 mixed pennant had an early game at Knox, 6pm, great timing for everyone – not.  The team did not quite make it happen, with Knox winning 1-0. Under 14 mixed south played Bayside at Dendy St, the result did not really match the game with Bayside winning 7-0. Thanks to Puck Ohuizen, Lexie Allen and Alex Desmond from under 12 helping them out.

On Saturday morning both under 12 shield teams had a win, great work. The under 12 girls  remain clearly on top of the ladder with their win over  Waverley, while the boys aiming to keep their spot in the four did the job with a 3-0 win over Brumbies.

Under 12 mixed shield

Under 12 mixed pennant are continuing a tough season with a never give up attitude going down 6-0 against a strong Knox team at the always freezing hockey centre.  While the under 12 girls pennant had their second win for the season with a 5-2 win over Donnie Green, with two goals to Sienna Hoult.

Under 10 girls had another win, 2-0 over Mentone.  It is great to see Bailey and Abi from quarter field help the team out again.  With a few of the under 10 girls having left Australia it is lovely for the quarter field girls to step up.

A wonderful atmosphere at Farm Rd on Saturday for the men’s games. It was a top of the table clash for Pennant F. Southern were four points ahead of Brumbies but the result did not show that with Brumbies taking a 5-1 win. 

Pennant D had a bad game last week and were determined to redeem this week, with the Southern team fourth on the ladder playing Donnie who was fifth. A very tight game, with a completely different game to the previous week with Southern taking a 2-1 win with Donnie having three short corners in the last 3 minutes. Thanks to Ted and James doubling up, and once great to see Andrew Layzell take to the pitch.

The great news of Sunday was the Pennant A game against Hawthorn. In the very tight competition, Southern played 3rd on the ladder Hawthorn for a 3-1 win. Nice to see you back Ben Hughes. Pennant A are now sixth on the ladder, two points off fourth

In the 3rd vs 4th match of pennant E, the Southern took the points in a 2-1 win at the hockey centre against Brumbies with goals to David Fisher and Liam Eddington. NIce to see you helping out John Leighton.

Metro A had a similar result against Brumbies in their game with a 3-0 win. Another father son combination is playing in the team with Kooper joining his father Mark in the team over the past two weeks.

Men’s metro B had the fun trip to Casey. This is a great team of the young boys, some young men some new to club and some who have been with us for some time and the “old guys”.  A good game with a 2-1 win with Greg Edwards and young Nick Fitzgerald scoring. In a weekend of stroke saves, Ed in Premier league, Lauren in Metro B, Jacques did not want to feel left out and also saved a stroke.

The results of the weekend leave all teams but Pennant A in the top four at this point.

The women’s teams had a tough round this weekend.

Women’s pennant B went down 3-0 to a stronger Powerhouse/St Kilda team, while pennant F after being up 2-1 at half time had Waverley come from behind to take the game 4-2. 

Women’s metro B went down 1-0 despite a stroke save by Lauren, great work Lauren.

Women’s metro A continue their stunning season, thirteen wins from thirteen games and a goal difference of sixty, with a 3-1 win over Collegians.

Despite the tough round, all women’s teams continue to hold a spot in the top four.