Back on the pitch again and it was clear that despite this interrupted hockey season, everyone was very keen to play.
Under 8 Mixed
Newtown Spirit vs Kardinia
A fantastic game by Newtown Spirit, with all the players showing great focus on the ball and using some square-through passing to get past the opposition. Hard chasing with sticks down didn’t allow Kardinia to gain any advantage and excellent passing to team mates saw Newtown maintain control of the play on many occasions.
Best Team Player Awards to Mitchell and Heidi.
Newtown Strikers vs Torquay
Another excellent game from Strikers, showing good ball control skills and great awareness of team mates.
Under 10 Mixed
Newtown Strikers vs Torquay 4-1
How good was it to be back on the hockey pitch after a 5 week break. Strikers were really motivated to play a great game against Torquay. So far in this hockey season they couldn’t win from this team (a loss and a draw), but today was different. Mainly because of great passing and very good defending from all, we created lots of chances. It was really great to watch! Josien scored all 4 goals, but she couldn’t have done it without great passes to get her free in front of the goal from mainly Audrey and Eddy. And the defence was so strong with Joey and James who defended many good attacks from Torquay. The final score was 4-1. A well deserved win!
Newtown Spirit vs Kardinia 3-0
A fantastic game by all the Spirit players saw the team chalk up their first win for the season, after continuous improvement each week.
Thanks to Josien for filling in at the last moment and her determination on the forward line saw her score 2 goals. But the focus and determination of Patrick, Eliza and Lilly as the Spirit defence was equally important in preventing Kardinia from scoring, and Lilly stopped a great ball in front of goal and passed away from danger.
Hard work in the midfield by Poppy and Ved turned the play to our advantage on many occasions. Ellie was also in great position, making many interceptions to stop Kardinia’s progress and looking for team mates to pass to.
Hard work and perseverance by Hamish, Josien and Maia was assisted by Albie and Lucy making great position on the wing. Maia pounced on a ball in a goal circle muddle to score the third goal. So not only was it the team’s first win for the year, it was the first time we had scored as well. A fantastic effort!
Best Team Player awards to Albie and Ellie.
Under 12 Mixed
Newtown Strikers vs Geelong Jaguars 4-0
Newtown Spirit vs Kardinia White 5-1
After having such a long layoff due to the mid-year school holidays, followed by another COVID lockdown, it was great to see the kids back out playing hockey, and such lovely weather. Thank you to all the families for following the return to play rules.
The kids showed little signs of the 5-week absence of a game, and in fact I think some possibly had one of their best games for the season. Mum’s and dad’s must have been getting them down to the park with their sticks for their daily exercise, so well done!
We had Pollyanna again helping us out in goals, and it is always a pleasure to have Pol in our team. After having 6 weeks off (with a broken bone in her hand), I know Charlotte was keen to get out and have a run around in the field. She was again teaming up with Will to provide some great rebound out of defence, linking up with Ollie to put on some important pressure in the middle. Kashvi and Audrey were providing a solid wall in defence, something that has been a common theme all season.
Ivy and Jett were showing some great field position as our wings, and were used on several forward thrusts, providing some great changes in direction when bringing the ball into attack. Matilda, Zac and Valentina were our solid core, that gave us many entries into the attacking D.
Although Zac scored an amazing and well deserved 4 goals with some cracking shots, the play of the day would probably have to be Matilda’s goal.
Play of the day: The ball was moved quickly out of defence, making its way to Charlotte around the middle of the field, who quickly moved the ball out wide to the leading Ivy, who ran the ball up the wing, passing to the leading Matilda, who brought the ball into the D, drawing the goalie to one side, and then hitting the ball into the other side of the goals. A nice piece of ball movement, that was only possible because the entire team were holding their positions, which in turn provided the space for our players to lead into. The passes were all out in front of the leading players, so none of them had to stop running, and a nice bit of polish by Matilda to get the goal. A great piece of hockey, well done Spirit on the team goal!
Under 14 Mixed
Newtown Spirit v Newtown Strikers 3-4
What a great game to return from lockdown with! A great team effort was given by Newtown Spirit, but it wasn’t quite enough against Newtown Strikers.
Our defenders were kept busy, but two goals from Liam and one goal from Tilly kept the game close. A great display of teamwork Newtown Spirit, who never gave up, scoring the third goal with minutes to go in the game.
Newtown Strikers vs Newtown Spirit 4-3
Great to see the sunshine and the both the teams out enjoying their hockey…it’s been 7 weeks since we hit the field together !! A battle of the Newtowns…Spirit Vs Strikers
Strikers played without a few of our players but we were very fortunate to have Zac step up from Under 12’s. Anya, Leo and Thamindu combined well in the back to keep moving the ball wide, maintaining a strong defensive triangle. Peri captained from the centre and connected well with the forwards. Serena was perfectly positioned on the post to pop in a goal and then treat us all to a groovy goal dance.
Zac, Tess and Chloe worked hard in the front line. Ruby, Kye and Nate created options for the Strikers to move forward. We will continue to work on following up the hits on goals and our corners. Nate and Eion finished off some fabulous team work putting away another 3 goals between them.
Well done Strikers, 4-3 the final score. Thanks goes to Spirit for a great game. We have a bye next week …so keep the practice up at home
Under 17 Mixed
Newtown Spirit vs Torquay 1-2
In what felt like a long awaited restart to the season, the Spirit side began a little rusty. We turned over the ball in the corridor too often, and had trouble clearing defence, and went into half time a goal down.
To their enormous credit, the team played well structured hockey in the second half, spread the ball wider, created 2 on 1s, talked more, and dominated possession. They were rewarded when Robbo slammed in a cross from Mitchell, via Nick down the right side. If we can bring this sort of play each week we should have a successful and enjoyable remainder of the season.
Division 1 Women
Newtown Falcons vs Golden Plains 5-2
Division 2 Men
Newtown Falcons vs Torquay Tornadoes 2-4
Division 2 Women
Newtown Strikers vs Geelong 1 1-12
In a tough match against a top Division 1 team, there was plenty of opportunity for the defence combination to show what they could do. For every goal which was scored, there was at least another one which was prevented by great defence play. Marking and covering the spaces was good, but Geelong’s forwards were very quick to move and to pounce on the rebounds. Great work across the half line with Andie, Hannah and Lauren trying valiantly to close down the spaces and limit the opportunities for Geelong to attack, was well backed up by Hillary and Kirsty.
There was some excellent positioning and leading and Newtown did manage to mount a number of attacks and forward thrusts with Deb, Grace, Ella and Gemma showing the advantage of speed and ball control. The highlight of the game was Ella’s run with the ball late in the game, running from half way with plenty of space to slot it right past the keeper into the net.
Well done Strikers. A great game by all.
