A highlight of the 2023 hockey season was the Newtown Hockey Club Day, held on Sunday June 4. With 9 Newtown teams all playing at Stead Park on the same day, there was plenty of great hockey to watch and teams to cheer for.
Voting for the ‘Player of the Day’ on Sunday gathered at least 10 players nominated in each category. After tallying the votes, the winners were:
- Junior Male Player of the Day – equal winners Alex Lockhart and Lucas Young
- Junior Female Player of the Day – Eva Hunt
- Senior Male Player of the Day – Phil Dreyer
- Senior Female Player of the Day – Ruby Moon
The sausage sizzle and the cupcakes on offer were well received, providing some welcome fuel for players after their game – and sometimes before! The raffle prize went to Leo De Leiros.
And then of course there were the matches too!
The club’s youngest players continued their usual format of games on Saturday, with some excellent play at Lloyd Reserve.
Under 6
Some great passing skills shown by the U6 players with good ball control and dribbling will be even better as they learn the strategies of the game of hockey too.
Under 8
Newtown Spirit vs Saints
First of all let me offer a warm welcome to 2 new team members to the Spirit. Elspeth and Lily had their first game and were straight into the action showing some great skills. It was another great outing for the Spirit against the Saints for the 2nd time this season. To even up the team numbers both Caspar and James played a half each for the Saints which was really appreciated. It’s really great seeing the skills improve each week and the games are now moving along at a great pace. James was rock solid back in defence for the first half and had a number of great runs that resulted in scores. Elspeth and Lily made some great moves down the right side, Cohen worked up and down the centre linking up well with James and Leila. Abby and Esther were providing plenty of run and options down the left.
In the second half Caspar replaced James down back and made a number of great saves. Overall another great performance from the Spirit and was fantastic to see great support on the sidelines given the inclement weather. Don’t forget there are no games for this weekend due to the King’s Birthday long weekend so have a great break and we’ll see you all on the 17th June.
Best Team Player Awards to James and Abby.
Newtown Strikers vs Geelong Jaguars
Newtown Strikers fielded a full strength team this week as we took on Geelong Jaguars.
The first half saw Thomas score Newtown’s only goal. Opportunistically, he swooped in on a defensive blunder by Geelong and slotted an elegant goal. Excellent vision Thomas and congratulations on being the joint recipient of this week’s “Player of the Round”. Thomas shared that award with Charlie who was a real stand out in defence and has been instrumental in the Strikers success this season. Well done boys! Keep up the great work.
Eliza had another wonderful match in the mid field and had two long range runs during the second half, testing and probing the Jaguars defence. Tess really stood tall this week in the mid field too. She didn’t shy away when contesting the ball and it’s been a real joy to see her flourish in the last two weeks. Keep up the great work girls!
It was excellent to have Henry back this week and he had a great game on the left wing. Focusing on the play and always being available to help a teammate. Special mentions go to Nadia and Miriam whose ball skills continue to develop nicely.
Keep up the great work Strikers and enjoy this weekend’s break. See everyone in a fortnight.
Under 10
Newtown Strikers vs Torquay 1-6
A much better game from Newtown Strikers saw a 2 goal improvement from the last match against Torquay. Torquay’s strength and speed still posed challenges, but confident possession of the ball from Joe, Georgia, Paige and Paddy and better focus on spreading out and playing to position by all allowed Newtown to create some attacks. Great running and supporting positions, even though often unrewarded, from Alexis and Winnie earned them 2 of the Best Team Player Awards for this week.
Strong defence and good positioning by Campbell and Tom blocked Torquay’s path to the goal on many occasions. Great teamwork between Georgia and Paige saw the ball travel down the right wing and Paige’s determination to hold possession saw her continue on to score the team’s goal. Good midfield backup from Edward and great movement on the forward line from Vicky underline the improvement in the team’s focus on the ball and the options for gaining possession.
Best Team Player Award also to Paige.
Under 12
Newtown Strikers vs Torquay 0-5
The Strikers put on a gallant effort against Torquay on Sunday morning despite having four of their regular players away. They were unlucky to lose 5-0 as they held off Torquay’s strength for the majority of the game.
Alex provided some strong and reliable defending and Eva’s accurate goal keeping prevented the score being higher. Thank you to Alexis and Sophie who stepped up and played for the Strikers.
Newtown Spirit vs Kardinia 3-1
Newtown started off strong with an early goal from Evelyn who tapped in a Jessica pass. Kardinia evened the score up before half time.
Kardinia pressed hard in the second half and had numerous opportunities with Spirit relying on the counter attack. Lucas Y scored off a short corner which is Spirit’s second short corner goal in two weeks. Another counter attack late in the game saw Ishe centre the ball for Evelyn to score a second. Spirited defence late in the game saw the final score Spirit 3-1 Kardinia.
Under 14
Newtown Strikers vs Torquay 0-3
With the move to a Sunday fixture this week the Strikers were without some key personnel for a tough match-up with Torquay. The Strikers competed strongly early, working hard to win the ball, and endeavouring wherever possible to move the ball into space. Torquay though were able to set up very well behind the ball and were able to cut off the Newtown attacks and eventually Torquay managed to score the only goal from a very even first half. Kurt implored the team to take more time when they took possession and be prepared to wait and draw forward to opposition to create passing opportunities. The distribution from defence by Oliver L, playing his first game for the Strikers, was a highlight as was the defensive stopping work of Riley and ball movement of Kashvi who had moved up to the half back line.
The second half started with Torquay moving the ball extremely well and making space through their offensive half, but some great defensive efforts from Ruby at full back held them at bay. Unfortunately, the pressure from Torquay eventually proved too much and they were able to add a couple more goals to the score Torquay were denied another goal though by Arthur, as goalie, making a great save in a 1v1 penalty stroke. In the last few minutes Newtown ran out the game strongly and were able to create some scoring opportunities with Hamish doing some great running on the wing to get into scoring positions, but the Torquay defence was able to hold them out and the game finished in defeat at 3-0.
Overall, Kurt was happy with the efforts from the team and the Strikers will head to training to continue working on some strategies to move the ball through a well structed defence like Torquay provided and hopefully reverse the result in the return fixture.
Under 17
Newtown Spirit vs Newtown Strikers 6-5
What a great way to celebrate all things Newtown.
Sunday morning through the fog the U17 Spirit played Strikers.
Both teams were without their regular goalies and we were so pleased to have Karla stepping into some big boots and put on the gear. It did take a huge community effort to get her kitted up and unfortunately Strikers snuck in and scored early. We made our impact with Hamish and Max both scoring in the first quarter. Lots of strong defence from captain Georgia kept Spirit in the game
The game saw the ball moved all over the field with some lifts and strong free hits. Lots of action along the outer edge of the field kept the game interesting. The score was locked at 2 all at half time.
After half time Spirit had a great passage of play that allowed Charlotte to find the sweet spot at the top corner of the net. Then Leo hit a text book tomma goal. Felix, Scarlett and Hamish kept leading to the goals allowing some good connecting plays between Leo, Max and Hugh
Three quarter time and the scores were locked at 4 all. Nate and Charlotte scoring in the last quarter to bring the score line to 6-5. Max had awesome game covering a huge amount of field, Leo pulled off a great goal and today our Player’s Player goes to Karla.
Well done everyone.
Division 1 Men
Newtown Falcons vs Geelong Blue 2-1
The Newtown Falcons played Geelong Blue at 5pm on Sunday, the last game of Club Day.
With a couple of injuries, the late timeslot and several players still “maybe” as at Sunday afternoon, numbers were shaky, but we managed to pull together a team of 10. Thanks particularly to AJ for playing at 12.30 and then returning in the evening to play again.
We started the game strongly but were unable to score in the first quarter. In the second quarter, we won our first corner and Basyl converted with a strong strike.
Despite having only 10 players and Geelong having a full bench, we managed to maintain our intensity in the second half. Phil and Basyl combined down the right hand side for our second goal.
Geelong scored a late goal, but we were able to hang on and come away with a rousing win.
Division 1 Women
Newtown Falcons vs Torquay 1-5
Division 2 Men
Newtown Strikers vs Geelong White 1-7
Division 2 Women
Newtown Strikers vs Torquay 4-1
The weather had many people eject from the game at the last minute due to work, covid and other unreasonable excuses 😉 … hockey comes first … come on kids.
The sausages were sizzling and the sun was out. Many of us resisted the temptation to eat a cupcake prior to the start of the game…. others regretting their life choices later in the game.
With a solid striking attack up forward Charlotte, Claudia, Claire, Kellie, Jane, Georgie and Hanna were linking in and out making quick work of their maths homework. Isosceles, accute, scalene, equilateral and right angles were all getting a work out. But none of us were obtuse. Never obtuse…
A great run forward from Charlotte, with support coming in behind her meant that a shot at goal and the perfect deflected angle off the keepers pads from her backup pinged into the backboard giving us a 1-0 lead early in the game.
Solid defence led by a super pumped up Jeanie kept them out for most of the game. Yet again, the awesome marking from Dee, Andi and Hannah meant that Tash was freed up and could hit her awesome bullet balls forward, backed up by Alex picking up anyone who slipped through with her legendary sweep tackles.
Kat led from the middle, creating structure and forward movement. The next three goals were team goals, linking in and passing round rather than trying to go through the goalie. Torquay managed to convert a short corner, no assists from Newtown players this week 😉
Our number one fan was out and cheering, whilst coaching, (Paul’s positivity always makes for a fun game). Thanks to our cheer squad for coming out again this week, a special mention to our youngest supporter and future player Margot who attended her first game.
