Congratulations to Brayden Lyon, Ryan Jones, Damon Steffens, Liam Alards and Emilio Fernandez, who were selected in the Under 13 State Hockey Team what a fantastic effort!

http://www.hockeyvictoria.org.au/index.php?id=11&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=581&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&cHash=8da35d46d5

Hockey Victoria is proud to announce ROTHFIELD as the naming rights sponsor to the 2010 Under 21 Men’s Australian Championships, to be held at the State Netball Hockey Centre from July 6 – July 17, 2010.  ROTHFIELD who have provided support for hockey at the grass root level have now shown their support to this national event whilst it is being hosted in Melbourne.

For those that don’t know me, I’m Seb Mutimer from the Men’s State League 1 team and the new Sponsorship committee member within the club – I thought I would put up a post on the website

Since the end of the last season I have been in Europe: travelling, learning Spanish and playing hockey for around ten months – An amazing experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

My aim for the trip was to live in another country, become part of the culture, learn its language and discover a new brand of hockey to improve my game for Australia. In between all of this I have travelled extensively throughout Europe for 10 months including: Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Morocco, Portugal and Spain (where I live in Barcelona).

I have been asked a million times which is my favorite country, an impossible task to pick – If I had to choose though, it would be a dead heat between Portugal and Spain, purely based on the experiences, people and culture that these places hold.

During my time over here I have met some amazing people that will be lifelong friends as well as experiences I will never forget. The incredible music festival in Amsterdam on my birthday, La Carnaval in Sitges Spain, skiing the Dolomites of Italy, Las Fallas Festival in Valencia, Las Semanas in Sevilla, Oktoberfest in Munich Germany, Paris whilst it is snowing, New Years in Barcelona, watching the greatest soccer team of our time (Barcelona FC) playing in Camp Nou, the parties in Scandinavia, the mind-blowing culture shift of Morocco and the beautiful beaches of Portugal as well as skydiving over the Algarve coast – just to name a few!

On to the hockey!

The dream to play and live overseas was helped along by a good Spanish friend I met and played against a few years ago in Melbourne – Borja Campos who played for Doncaster SL1 and also plays for the National Barcelona team and is my roommate. He organized me to play for the Masculina Primera Barcelona Equipa, my registrations, licensing and accommodation – which made everything amazingly easy for me!

Before Christmas two of my best friends (from Amsterdam) and I were playing for the Segundo division, as we arrived 2 rounds into the season and due to licensing and international player rules we were not allowed to be promoted until after Christmas – during this time we bought the Segundo division to the top of the table.

We now play for the Primera Division in a tightly contested 12 team division where the next three rounds can decide between playoffs and relegation for 6 teams (two up two down relegation system). So the stakes are high at the moment and training as amped up a bit!

The Barcelona FC has been a great club for me and is well organized with 2-3 trainings a week, a physical trainer for an hour before training, two water base grounds (with one commencing resurfacing recently) as well as free access to the Barcelona physio (same one the soccer players use!) in Camp Nou. We also travel around Spain to play clubs in other cities, such as Valencia and Madrid. These trips are all expense paid over the weekend and are a fantastic experience.

I have around 3 weeks left in my trip and it’s going to be busy. A trip to Valencia to play Valencia HC, a flight to Nice to visit some Australian friends, watching the Champions league of Barcelona FC as well as the Handball for Barça, heading to Amsterdam for Queens Day with my Dutch mates and another skydive!

It has been something I will never forget and urge all younger players to consider it after their schooling or graduate programs as a gap year. If you want any info or have any questions im always around the club to have a chat and share my tips and experiences. I will be seeing you all around the club very soon!

FORÇA BARÇA!

Ciao ciao, bueno suerte equipos de Waverley!
Sebástian

Click on any picture for the full size, have toooooo many pictures to upload but here is a couple.

Written by Alana Butler

I began my trip by flying out of Melbourne on the 6th June and meeting the team in Singapore. It was on our first official day of tour that we played the Singapore U18 Women. Grace the other goalkeeper and myself were not given much of a go in this game as our team dominated on the field.

We finished winning 12 nil. It was a great start and gave us all a good confidence boost. We finished the day off with some shopping and then boarded our 13 hour flight to London.

After arriving in London on Monday the 8th, we had to beat jetlag by making a full day of sightseeing. One of the main highlights of the day was the London Eye, which gave us an amazing view of London City. We spent the two days traveling and packing in as much sightseeing as possible.

We stopped in Oxford, which was an awesome experience to see all the students walking around in their official robes and then continued our journey arriving in Nottingham, where we played our second game of the tour against Lincoln College which again we won 7 nil. Our third match was much tougher and we fought hard for the 4-3 win against Sutton Coalfield. Our fourth game was against British Colleges and although we won 5 nil it was personally my best game.

Our fifth game was the highlight of the tour, where we played the English U18 team as the follow up match to an international match between the Spanish and English women. Our team worked extremely well as an attacking and defensive unit. We played a tough match, always only just on top of our opposition we managed to win 5-3 with a goal in the last thirty seconds of the match. It was an amazing feeling as we stood facing our flag singing the national anthem, our spirits high after our superb win. Our last two matches were won well with 4 nil against the Wales U18 team and 6 nil against Bristol University.

The tour was an incredible experience combining hockey and lots of sightseeing and touring, one of the best places I was fortunate to visit was the city of Bath, it lived up to its history. With some of the most remarkable architectural buildings I have ever seen. All in all it was a brilliant experience and although it only lasted 16 days, seemed like much longer as each day was so crammed with excitement.

Pictures of the trip from Alana.

Please do not hesitate to contact Jim Lekkas, State Teams Manager if you have any further queries.

2010 Nomination Form

James Knee (U15 Boys) – James is pictured right playing a great season in the Men’s Pennant A team with 4 goals to his name.

Alex Bowering (U13 Boys)

Belinda Mason (U13 Girls)

The following Waverley Juniors made the Victorian Development squads which is a priviledge and should be acknowledged and congratulated.

Stephen Head & Ben Wilkinson (U15 Boys)

Well done!

FINAL
New South Wales 3 v Victoria 1 (1-1 half time)
Goals – NSW McGarity 11m PC/59m PC, VIC Lanning 20m PC, NSW Forsyth 54m FG

The Victorian U18 Women’s State Team fell gallantly to NSW in the final of the Australian Championship in Canberra.

New South Wales, winners in 2008 and 2009 were ready to make a hat trick, whilst Victoria were keen to reclaim the shield after their last win 2004.

With plenty of support for both teams, New South Wales were quickest out of the blocks with a penalty corner conversion at the 11 minute mark by captain Claire McGarity. Within the space of ten minutes Victoria’s consistent goal scorer Meg Lanning responded to level the scores 1-1.

With less than two minutes remaining to half time New South Wales had an opportunity to go 2-1 up, however were unable to convert, keeping the score level at half time.

In the opening minutes of the second half was intense as both teams tried to claim possession. New South Wales were able to score their second for the match and a short time later followed this up with their third goal, Claire McGarity’s second for the match and held off Victoria to secure victory and the championship.

Congratulations to the Victorian Girls and especially Lucy for such a great tournament and for making the Grand Final!

Hockey Victoria has been involved in numerous international events since the State Netball Hockey Centre (SNHC) opened in March 2001.

Housing world class facilities the SNHC hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games hockey tournament as well as other international series throughout its existence.

The latest major international event that will be held at the SNHC will be the 2009 ABN AMRO Men’s Champions Trophy in November. Please see below for details on the upcoming international event.

2009 ABN AMRO MEN’S CHAMPIONS TROPHY

The annual event is the biggest hockey tournament for 2009 and sees the world’s six top ranked nations compete for the Champions Trophy. The Australian team will also boost Waverley’s very own Luke Doerner in the tournament.

Who are competing: Australia, England, Germany, Korea, Netherlands, Spain

Champion Trophy’s Match Schedule

Where: State Netball Hockey Centre, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria

When: 28 November – 6 December 2009

Tickets: Tickets for the event will be on sale from 9am Monday 18th May through ticketmaster.

Special offers: All Hockey Victoria affiliates have access to a special offer. Please see resources for further information.

Regning champions: Australia

The Australian Under 18 Men’s & Women’s Indoor Championships will be held in January, 2010 in Western Australia.

Nomination forms can be downloaded below:

U18 Mens and Womens Indoor nomination form

2009/2010 Indoor Officials nomination form

2009/2010 Indoor Selectors nomination form

The Under 14 & 16 Men’s & Women’s Indoor Championships will be held 4th – 8th January 2010 at Niagra Park, Central Coast, NSW.

Nomination forms can be downloaded below:

U14 & U16 Mens and Womens Indoor nomination form

2009/2010 Indoor Officials nomination form

2009/2010 Indoor Selectors nomination form

VICTORIAN GOALSCORERS

● Meg Lanning -8 Goals
● Tegan Purser – 4 Goals
● Hayley Padget – 3 Goals
● Tegan Boucher – 2 Goals
● Isabelle Peskett – 2 Goals
● Sarah Forsyth – 2 Goals
● Samantha Snow 1 Goal

TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Game 1
VICTORIA 3 TAS 1

Game 2
VICTORIA 2 WA 3

Game 3
VICTORIA 4 NT 1

Game 4
VICTORIA 3 QLD 3

Game 5
ACT 2 VICTORIA 3

Game 6
VICTORIA 5 SA 0

Game 7
VICTORIA 5 NSW 3

Semi Final
VICTORIA 2 WA 1


2009 Australian U18 Women’s Championship