Hockey Victoria’s Junior State Championships have come and gone for another season and plenty of the Goulburn Valley Hockey Association’s rising stars had a taste of the action at the State Netball Hockey Centre and Hawthorn Malvern Hockey Centre.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Local junior hockey talents play for the North East Country Knights in this representative format, and the outfit was able to snare a medal in the under-13 boys’ competition.
It was a 2-0 win against the North West Country Lightning which snared the Knights a bronze medal, with the likes of GVHA products Max Cole, Luke Greig, Mason Uniacke, Robert Thomas, Ryan Said, Jye Berryman and Sam Holland all standing on the podium.
The tournament began with a 2-0 win against the Central Metro Flames for the Knights, followed by 2-all draws against the Western Metro Wildcats and the North East Metro Red Devils.
A pair of defeats to finish off the qualifying rounds were not enough to drop the Knights out of the top four, allowing them to play off for a medal on Friday morning.
The under-13 girls battled hard all week, with a pair of gritty draws lifting the Knights from the bottom of the table into a ranking of ninth for the tournament.
In the qualifying rounds the Knights drew nil-all against the North West Metro Tigers before managing the same result against the South West Country Eagles in the final match of the competition.
Emme Cole, Leah Kerr, Brooke Linnett, Olivia Mathers and Abigail Vaivars were all among the squad for the GVHA.
The under-15 girls had a big win on the last day of the competition to rise into seventh spot for the tournament.
The final scoreline against the Eagles was 4-1 in favour of the Knights, who also had positive results against the Southern Metro Sharks (3-0), Eagles (2-2) and Gippsland Bulls (3-0) throughout the week — with Elyse Kerr, Keeley Thompson and Taree Fletcher among the action.
In the under-15 boys’ bracket the Knights managed to slide into sixth spot after falling to the Lightning 3-2 in the play-off for fifth position.
With the likes of Angus Cole, Tyler Green, Haydn Uniacke and Jack Vaivars in the squad the Knights were able to defeat the Eagles (4-0), Sharks (3-1), Bulls (5-0) and Red Devils (2-1) across the competition.
The under-18 girls were unstoppable in their play-off contest, defeating the Sharks 4-0 to be ranked fifth overall at the championships.
Gabby Cardamone, Chloe Kell, Jenna Park, Emily Schreck and Courtney Thompson were involved in the Knights’ squad, which also secured wins against the Sharks (2-0), Eagles (4-0) and Bulls (2-1) across the week.
The under-18 boys also won their play-off game — defeating the Lightning 3-1 — to lay claim to the seventh spot on the table after the dust settled on the championships.
Alex Dowe, Evan Dowe, Lachie Keady, Ryan Thomson and Andrew Williams all represented the GVHA in the side, which had wins against the Eagles (2-1), Sharks (2-1) and Bulls (4-0) during the tournament.
The under-18 boys and under-13 girls Knights outfits won Hockey Victoria’s Play the Whistle Award at the championships, which promotes and rewards good behaviour — namely fair play and sportsmanship — from those involved with junior teams, including players, coaches and spectators.
