Hockey
22 May, 2025
Juniors compete at state country champs
Wimmera teams have competed in the Hockey Victoria Junior Country Championships in Melbourne for the first time in five years and although they did not return with any titles, the players gained some valuable experience.
With two teams in the blue and gold and several local players lining up for other associations, more than 30 players from across the six local clubs took advantage of the opportunity to play alongside and against some of the best players from regional Victoria.
The under 16 girls' team started the tournament with a one-goal loss to strong rivals North Central, but bounced back with a scoreless draw with Geelong and then a one-goal win over East Gippsland to have them fifth on the ladder at the end of Saturday’s games.
On Sunday morning, they narrowly lost games to Hockey South West (Warrnambool), Ballarat and Hamilton, which qualified them for the fifth placed play-off match.
In this game they played Hamilton again, and although they held them to just one goal, having conceded two in the previous match, they could not score themselves and lost this by just one goal.
With a record for the weekend of one win and a draw from seven starts, they finished the tournament in sixth place in their division.
The under 14 boys also started slowly with losses to South West, Hockey Central Vic (Bendigo) and Geelong on Saturday, and a loss to North Central to start Sunday morning, but finished their pool matches with a win over West Gippsland by two goals to one.
Their final game was a cross-over match with Sunraysia from Pool B which they won by one goal to finish the tournament on a positive note with a record of two wins from six matches.
Six other Wimmera players to participate in the tournament were Tom Batchelor, who scored one goal while playing for North Central under 18 boys who finished fourth; Yanac’s Sean Pedie and Horsham’s Jack Di Pietro, who lined up for the Sunraysia under 16 boys' team which finished seventh' Olivia Knoop in the Under 16 Girls team from the South West (Warrnambool) that finished fourth; and Hunter and Reily Knoop played for the South West under 16 boys, which finished fourth.
Sending representative teams to these tournaments is always a big undertaking for not just the players involved but also a significant team of coaches, team managers and parents who provide many hours of volunteer time to create an opportunity for the local players to participate, but the benefits always seen in the rise in the standard of hockey in the local competition after this tournament make the effort worthwhile.