We are nearly at the midway point of the 2022 hockey season, and we are still welcoming new members to the club, and very happy to do so.
Highlight of the round: in his second game for the club, Madden volunteered to put on the goalkeeping gear for U14 Spirit – and did a great job! Well done Madden.
Under 8 Mixed
Newtown Navigators vs Torquay Tornadoes
Newtown Navigators played against Torquay Tornadoes this week. Each week the Navigators are playing better as a team, passing to each other and looking for a well-positioned player to pass to on the free hits. This week the Best Team Player award went to Eleanor who listened well, picking up Torquay players on their free hits ensuring the ball didn’t get to her tagged player. Eleanor also ran well with the ball. The second player to receive an award was Archie, who made some good passes and worked hard to move the ball forward, playing a good attacking game.
Newtown Strikers v Kardinia:
With a few of the U8 Strikers unavailable it was welcome to have one of Kardinia’s players join Strikers for the game. All the Strikers warmed up well with some great games and activities from Claire. During the game Ewan and Paddy had some great passes and plays moving the ball forward. Victoria played exceptionally well with some fantastic tackles and passes forward – Victoria was awarded Best Team Player of the week with some big improvements.
Kardinia was a strong team but Grace also did some good tackles along with good support from Blair up forward. Sadly Alexis and Dot couldn’t play due to illness but we look forward to having a full team back after the long week end.
Go Strikers!!
Newtown Spirit vs Torquay
It was a tricky game this week with both teams only having 4 players. Torquay showed great speed and excellent skills to quickly pounce on any loose balls, making for a fast game. Spirit worked hard to move the ball with some great passing by Harry and Cate, with James and Edith working hard in the goals, showing great tackling skills. Harry was always looking for a team mate to pass to whenever he got the ball. Some strong defence by James allowed Spirit to send the ball forward but despite Cate and Edith working hard to continue the progress to goal, we were not able to make much headway. Well done to all players for their perseverance and effort.
Under 10 Mixed
Newtown Strikers vs Torquay 7-1
Newtown Spirit vs Geelong 1-1
Another great game from Newtown Spirit, with teamwork and passing improving each week. Players are showing great determination and good ball control skills, helping to distribute the ball to team mates in good position and drive play forward. Strong and reliable defence turned back many of the Geelong attacks, and effective clearances allowed Newtown to control the play at various times.
Under 12 Mixed
Newtown Strikers vs Geelong 1-2
Strikers were missing a few players again this week, but were able to field a full team of 11 with Bella and Pollyanna from U12 Spirit and Emily, Evelyn and Jessica from U10 Spirit all lending a hand. The 3 under 10 players all played very well, stepping up to play with the older players on a bigger synthetic pitch instead of the grass pitch they normally play on. Charles was strong in defence again with many powerful clearances out of the D. Other standouts were some great traps from Evelyn, Bella making several intercepts in the centre of the ground, and Audrey making great position along the right wing.
The scores were level at 1-all at half time with Geelong seeming to have the momentum in the first half and Newtown looking better in the second half. It looked like the game was going to be a draw with no second half score, but unfortunately for Strikers, Geelong got a last minute goal.
Newtown Spirit vs Torquay 1-1
Spirit started off very well, getting the first goal through Bella. This proved to be the only goal of the first half and the only goal for Spirit. Xavier had a great game, always putting in his best to get the ball down to the goals, and at half time, Spirit was up 1-0.
In the second half Torquay came out and scored their 1st goal, making it an even game at 1 all. However Newtown Spirit all stuck together as a team and all the players played an excellent second half. Thanks to Maia and Audrey for helping Spirit this week.
Under 14 Mixed
Newtown Spirit vs Torquay 1-1
This week, Spirit put on a great game of hockey against Torquay who are always a tough opponent. Thanks to Amelia for jumping in to help out Rebels and to Madden who kitted up as goalie in only his second game.
It was a very evenly matched game but Torquay were first to score. Spirit came back strongly and applied great pressure to Torquay, keeping the ball in their half for most of the remainder of the game. There was some great passing and use of the wings. A beautiful switch from Jett in the back line across onto the right wing, started a nice run of play involving a number of players. The ball flew up the right wing and into the D allowing Aimee to put away the equaliser. This was a great example of team work.
Newtown continued the pressure in the second half and we saw some lovely examples of selfless play, with everyone involved in the game. Madden put in a fantastic performance in goal, reading the play well and getting in some good saves. A late short corner to Torquay created some drama and had everyone biting their nails, but the scores stayed level at full time. A great result for the team and a really exciting match to watch.
The players player votes went to Ruby this week, closely followed by Aimee, Charlie, Hamish and Madden – our star goalie!! Congratulations also go to Charlie on reaching his 25 game milestone with NCHC.
Newtown Strikers vs Kardinia Blue 3-0
With two players away on hockey trials and Wildcats training and then Surry injuring his knee at footy before the game, we were again a player short of a full team this week. Surry was keen to play, but after doing a walk on, and walk off at the start of the game, spent the remainder of the game on the bench to rest his knee.
Kurt did a great job restructuring the line-up, to keep the structure together. The pre-game run throughs had our legs working, and the team energy looked good from the get-go.
Early we were getting the good ball movement, getting us up into attack. But we were falling over with entries into the attacking D, probably rushing a little bit, and not looking up to see the good position our teammates were in. That being said, our first goal came from a very nice section of hockey, switching the ball between multiple players, moving the ball from one end of the pitch to the other, before Brandon got us on the board.
The Kardinia goalie was getting plenty of work, but at times we seemed to be going straight at his pads, rather than looking for the corners as we had been practising. Our defence was having to work hard, as Kardinia got break away runs out of defence. Some great defensive running from Leo helping out Kashvi to halt the runs, and some good saves from Charlotte, keeping Kardinia scoreless. A late entry into the D, with the ball positioned on the back line, saw Max thread the needle, racking up our second goal just before the half time whistle. Still not sure how he got it in, must have been some Warnie magic on the ball!
Kardinia regrouped after half time and came at us hard. They got a few break aways, but again some great hard defensive running from Leo and Max, and saves from Charlotte, clearing the balls out to the sides, for our wings to collect. Ollie and Ivy were doing some great work out wide. Kashvi had a turn up forward, and great position on the post, almost saw her score a goal. Izzy was doing some great work all game, feeding the ball onto Zac, Will and the other forwards, and thwarting the Kardinia rebound getting us back into attack. Ivy was consistently making great position on the post, and this great position resulted in Ivy getting our third goal, receiving the ball from a nice pass from Max.
Well done Strikers, enjoy the weekend off, and come back firing. Wishing Surry all the best with his knee, we hope you are ok, and it turns out not too serious.
Newtown Rebels vs Kardinia White 1-1
Under 17 Mixed
Newtown Strikers Bye
Newtown Spirit vs Torquay 0-8
Division 1 Women
Newtown Falcons vs Geelong 0-4
With multiple players unavailable this week through injury and other commitments, this week was going to always be a tough game. Then we lost Hailey to food poisoning, resulting in a last-minute call for help, with Kellie stepping in to give us a hand.
Tragically Kellie hurt her knee 5 minutes into the game, after a slip and a collision with another player, hitting her head on the turf. We all hope Kellie is doing ok, after leaving the pitch on a stretcher, still managing a cheeky royal wave as we carried her off mind you.
Georgie from D2 put on her Newtown colours and arrived down at Stead Park to give us a full team on the pitch again before the end of the first quarter. Great club commitment right there.
We were moving the ball nicely, but at times were not passing quickly enough, resulting in the turn overs. Our players were making good position out wide, and our new defenders were doing well.
Some sneaky little Geelong hits back between their legs were catching us out, and getting good drive from Geelong, something for us to work more on defending better in the future.
Still going into half time, a respectable 1-0 down.
We regrouped at half time, discussing where we could see opportunity. Early in the half we seemed to put this into practice, and got some scoring opportunities, but unfortunately were not able to convert the short corners, although we were very close on a few.
Late in the game Geelong got repeat forward entries and racked up another 3 goals as the workload on our defence peaked. We still got a couple of late forward thrusts of our own, showing a team culture that keeps fighting to the final whistle, something which was great to see.
Thanks to the D2 players that helped us with numbers this week, it was greatly appreciated. Enjoy the weekend off, for those not playing in the senior country champs, and please try to make it to training if you can.
Division 2 Men
Newtown Falcons vs Golden Plains 3-1
Division 2 Women
Newtown Strikers vs Geelong 3-3
With a 1-3 scoreline in the previous match in this hockey season against Geelong, Strikers were hopeful of improving on this result. Geelong scored early, following up a deflection off the keeper, and with their speedy fowards put pressure on the Strikers defence. However, Kirsty and Tash met the challengers early and deflected many of Geelong’s attacks, blunting the effectiveness of their forwards. With Alex marshalling and guiding the midfield, Deb and Sarah marked their opponents well and sent the ball back into our attack zone.
Geelong scored again from a penalty stroke, and the scoreboard showed 1-3 at one stage. However, Newtown Strikers continued to work hard and with great ball control skills and some good passing to players running to space, we were able to get two goals on the board and earn a draw, a very pleasing result. Goals scored by Shan, Kellie and Georgie.
