Footscray Hockey Club

State League 2 (4) def Kew (3) Goals A Turnbull 2, Z Shipperley ?

Click Here for Report

Pennant c (4) def Jew (3) Goals A Scott 2 ?

Pennant D (3) lt MCC (4) Goals

The passion shown by the 2nd team to win their game set the scene for us… a focused team effort today we had great interplay in attack and looked composed in defence, It’s great to be in the granny next weekend, we are determined to beat Mentone!!!!

Metro 1 North (2) lt MCC (4)

For Vets, Mens & Juniors please the following
Vets Mark Stephens 0408 326 985 markstephens63@hotmail.com
Mens Tom Griffin 0424 617 363 tom.griffin@buchan.com.au
Juniors Brendan Sheehan 0405 061 536 brendan.sheehan@sport.vic.gov.au

Ladies Summer Competition 2011/2012!

Contact Nicole Virtuoso
0424132715
nicolevirtuoso@gmail.com

Competitions:

#1 Development Squads – by invitation – coached by State League coach Luke Michael
Outdoor Summer Development Squad Thursday @ F1
Super League Indoor Competition Sunday nights @ Monash
FEES ARE $15 per game for Seniors & Juniors or $120 up front paid by round 3
Goalies no fees

#2 Social Ladies Thursday Night @ F2  (Metro 2, 3 & 4 standard – run by FHC on F2 and as this comp is NOT run by HV fees are slightly cheaper)
FEES ARE
Seniors $10 per game or $80 up front paid by round 3
Juniors $7 per game or $55 up front paid by round 3
Goalies no fees

#3 Competitive Ladies Thursday Night @ F1 (State League, Pennant & M1 standard – on F1)
FEES ARE $15 per game for seniors & juniors or $120 up front paid by round 3
Goalies no fees

Please write comp interested in:

Name:

Mobile Number:

E-mail address:

Any particular people you wish to play summer with? (or list “New Member” or “Don’t Mind”)

FIXTURE

Round 1 Monday, 17th October – Sunday, 23rd October
Round 2 Monday 24th October – Sunday, 30th October

Break (Melbourne Cup Week)

Round 3 Monday, 7th November – Sunday, 13th November
Round 4 Monday, 14th November – Sunday, 20 November
Round 5 Monday, 21st November – Sunday, 27th November
Round 6 Monday, 28th November – Sunday, 4th December
Round 7 Monday, 5th December – Sunday, 11th December

Break (Christmas)

Round 8 Monday, 30th January – Sunday, 5th February
Round 9 Monday, 6th February – Sunday, 12th February
Round 10 Monday, 13th February – Sunday, 19th February

Semi Finals Monday, 20th February – Sunday, 26th February

Grand Final Monday, 27th February – Sunday, 4th March

The State League 2 Womens side secured promotion to SL1 today with a win against Kew.

Ladies Director Nicole Virtuoso, who has been in the position for 9 years, was ecstatic for the team, coach and club. A dream come true to finally be back in SL1. It has been over 30 years since the Womens division has played in the Premier League in Victoria. Nicole’s mother Marianne Evans played in the last FHC SL1 equivalent team in 1979 (A Grade as it was called back then). The Women’s 2nd Pennant C, 3rds Pennant D and 6th Metro 3 North are in Grand Finals also together with 4 Mens sides: State League 2, Pennant E, Metro 1 West, Metro 3 West. Lets hope for 8 out of 8!

Match Report from Coach Luke Michael

There was much anticipation before the preliminary match versus Kew at the SNHC. The team not only needed to win to make the grand final against MCC, the team needed to win to secure promotion to Victoria’s Premier League – State League 1. Once again the team arrived at the ground and discussed what they we wanted to achieve for this game. A very switched on group of players commenced their warm up preparations and returned to the field and ready to go.

The game began and a pumped Footscray set the pace. They pressed Kew and caused them to turnover the ball. FHC applied pressure on their keeper who made some good early saves. Kew had a couple of breakaways that were shut down before they entered the circle. The girls worked a corner half way through the first half and executed it correctly to go 1 – 0 up. Shortly after this they earned another corner and once again we scored. Amy Turnbull scoring both goals. With 40 seconds to go in the half the girls earned another corner and this time Zoe Shipperly scored our third to take us 3 – 0 nil into half time.

The team knew they had to keep control to ensure Kew were not given a chance to get back into the game. FHC began dominating the second half, however then the passing play slowed down and this allowed Kew to string some passes together. They earned a corner from a turnover and scored, 3 – 1. The team began their passing game again and took back control of the rest of the game. FHC forced yet earned another corner which was converted to be 4 – 1 up and in complete control of the game. We had more chances to score but failed to convert and played out the rest of game. The girls elated to earn the promotion to WSL1 and entry to the grand final next week against MCC. FHC now have the 4th chance of the season to challenge MCC.

Coach Luke Michael stated “Our best performance of the year, we played the first half of the game like a WSL1 team. The girls executed a very disciplined  game to earn a spot in the grand final. It is the reward the players deserve after all the hard work and sacrifices they have made this year. This week will focus on Grand Final preparations. It should be a terrific day next Sunday with our Women & Men in the grand finals. Thank you to all the supporters  – it was amazing to see the red white and blue in huge numbers. Hope to see you all next week. Well done ladies.”

Hockey bulldogs searching for glory

2011 could prove to be a landmark year in the history of the Footscray Hockey Club. Poised to contest both the Mens and Women’s State League Division 2 Grand Finals this coming weekend, the club is on the precipice of returning to hockey’s elite level for the first time in fifty years. Although up against higher-ranked teams in both games, the bulldogs will be cheered on by their army of loyal supporters who have a busy weekend ahead of them with Footscray contesting a massive 15 grand finals across the senior and junior grades. 2nd on the ladder, the  State League Women’s team secured promotion to State League 1 after their preliminary final win to contest the grand final with 1st placed MCC.

One family alone, the Hopkins-Thomas family will have all 5 family members competing on the weekend in their respective teams. Dad Greg is determined to break his duck after falling a little short in 9 previous grand finals over his illustrious 40 year career. 10th time lucky?

The big grand-final weekend tops off an incredible year for the hockey bulldogs in which they have again won the award for Victoria’s most successful junior program, won against 66 other clubs competing in the Melbourne leagues. Footscray’s top U17 and U15 boys and girls teams lead the grand final charge in the junior division, climaxing a year in which a record 15 Footscray children have been selected into Victorian junior state teams.

Nominations are now open for the Indoor U18 & U15 State Teams!

2012 National Championship Dates:

U18: January 9-14 – Brisbane, QLD

U15: January 9-14 – Perth, WA

Trial Dates & Venue: Dandenong Indoor Facility (Cnr Cleeland & Heatherton
Rds, Dandenong. Mel Ref 90 E3

Sunday October 30

8.00am – 9.00am: U18 Women
9.00am – 10.00am: U18 Men
10.00am – 11.00am: U15 Girls
11.00am – 12.00pm: U15 Boys

Sunday November 6,

8.00am – 9.00am – U18 Women
9.00am – 10.00pm – U18 Men
4.00pm – 5.00pm – U15 Girls
5.00pm – 6.00pm – U15 Boys

Nomination fee: $32 (this includes HV administration, pitch hire & sporting
pulse and paypal processing fees)

Nominations strictly close Friday 21st October.

NOTE: Click ‘I am registering to this club for the first time’ to nominate

For more information or to nominate Click here
For queries please contact Anthony Piccolo (State Teams Coordinator) on
8379 4288 or apiccolo@hockeyvictoria.org.au

Word is through informally that FHC might have knocked Camberwell off for the title of Victoria’s best junior program! That’s the best of 67 clubs/associations playing in Melbourne. Our boys program came second to Camberwell, whilst our girls program was second to Waverley (only missed by a whisker even though we didn’t have an U13 A girls team this year). On the combined or overall score we were well ahead of any other contenders. Well done to all involved in helping the FHC Juniors compete in 2011!

Hope everyone can support as many teams as possible wearing Red, White & Blue!

State League 2 (2) lt MCC (3) Goals A Turnbull

Finals time and earning second spot gives the FHC ladies side the double chance and another crack at MCC to see who goes straight into the the grand final in a few weeks time.  The team knew what we had to do, set our game plan in motion and looked sharp before the start of the game.
The game commenced at break neck speed with both teams trying to get the upper hand. Both teams created some excellent chances to score in the first half and the game was evenly poised. A turnover led to MCC earning a corner, a quick layoff to their left side and a quick shot lead to MCC’s first goal. With only a few minutes left in the half there was no further score.

MCC began the second half better than the FHC team did and scored off another corner with a direct hit that clipped the top of keepers pads.  Minutes later they scored again to 0 – 3 up and in total control. The FHC girls, at 3 goals down panicked for a short period of time and started to try and fire ball from our back line to our forwards. They then settled down and started to pass the ball around. With 15 minutes to go FHC started to attack more and scored an uplifting goal to get their confidence up. The FHC girls pressed on and we scored quickly again and were 1 goal away from forcing a draw. With 5 minutes to go MCC tried to slow game down. For the FHC girls, they ended up running out of time but showed the minor premier that we  can score against them and play well.

Coach Luke Michael stated “Once again we showed that we are improving with the league leader, last two times we have lost 5-1 and 4-1. Now all we have to do is win the Preliminary Final against a very good Kew team and we will be able to get another chance to play MCC in the final. We lost our composure for some of the game and played into MCC’s hands. When the team is mentally switched on they can match it with the best of them. Need a big supporter crowd there this Sunday at 10.30am on S1 to help lift us over the line.”

Pennant c (2) def Jew (1) Goals J Angus, J Skilton

The girls entered the final knowing that they had been playing well in the last month.  In saying that, Kew had also hit form winning 9-0 the previous week.  Foots started well pressing Kew with quick movement of the ball and setting up goal opportunities.  Jas Angus and Jaimee Skilton showed their experience by being in the perfect position to score in the first half. The girls entered the half time break with a 2-0 lead and full of confidence.  It was quite clear that Kew would throw everything at them given it was do or die. Foots defended well; however, Kew scrambled a goal.  The final score 2-1.  We play Mentone this week who finished on top at season’s end. We have not beaten them this year; therefore, it will be a challenge.  A challenge the girls, I believe, can step up to.

Pennant D (3) lt MCC (4) Goals

As expected the game against Mentone was another evenly contested game. After we got ourselves back into the game Mentone exposed our lapses in concentration and snatched the win in extra time. We play Power House this weekend and are looking forward to getting back to our winning ways.

Metro 1 North (1) lt Camberwell (2) Goals 

Metro 2 North (0) lt Kew (6)

With three key defenders and a striker out, this was going to be a difficult match for the girls to win.  The game started out with both teams going head to head and playing very physical hockey.  Although opportunities to score were presented for both teams, the second half was started at nil all.  The highlight of the first half was the ability of the defence to keep moving the ball out of our defensive circle and praise should be given to Monica and Hannah (WM3S) for their efforts. The second half started badly with Kew scoring from a short corner in the first few minutes and followed up by a second short corner some 5 minutes later (we were really missing our regular defenders).  From here the Kew forwards were working our defence hard and scored regularly from then on until final whistle.  The attacking team (including Zoe WM3S) worked the ball hard in the second half, but failed to break through the determined Kew defence.  Kew’s physical style of play appeared to put some of our girls off their game and this was reflected in the final score.

Metro 2 South (2) lt (7) Goals T Bezzobs 2

Metro 2 South girls had a tough task to take on the top 4 again this season, just making it. And after taking the premiership last year from the same position, there was no doubting the expectations we were all carrying. The game was very fast from the outset, and didn’t ease up. ECHO scored early, and then after absorbing considerable pressure, we hit back and levelled the game. But just before half time, ECHO scored two goals quickly and it became impossible to recover from there. Everyone tried hard in the second half, but with only one other goal scored, the result was imminent. Great effort to all the girls for getting into the finals after promotion, and a big thanks to all our supporters throughout the season.

Metro 3 North (2) def Yarra (0) Goals K. Gordon, L. Thomas

Another excellent performance from the team this week. Finished on top of the ladder and played like a good side – controlled the game throughout, created scoring chances at our end and limited the oppositions chances to score at the other end. Now into the grand final in two weeks time!! Well done and good luck!

FHC’s major sponsor Just Hockey is having a sale – Check it out!

FHC Senior Men’s & Women’s Sections have hit the jackpot with 14 out of 17 teams in Finals after the last round of the home and away season. 4 teams have secured Minor Premier. 2 teams secured the double chance in 2nd. 5 teams in third and 3 teams in 4th.

We wish every team success in the first Semi!

STATE LEAGUE FINALS

Womens’ State League 2 (2nd) vs MCC
Men’s State League 2 (3rd) vs Albury

PENNANT FINALS

Women’s Pennant D (1st)  vs Mentone
Women’s Pennant C (3rd) vs kew
Men’s Pennant B (3rd) vs Waverley
Men’s Pennant E (3rd) vs PH

HOME FINALS AT FHC

Men’s Metro 4 West Red (3rd)  vs PH
Men’s Metro 3 West (1st) vs Brunswick
Men’s Metro 1 West (1st) vs MCC

Women’s Metro 1 North (2nd) vs Camberwell
Women’s Metro 3 North (1st) vs Yarra Valley

AWAY FINALS

Men’s Metro 2 West (4th) vs Melton
Women’s Metro 2 North (4th) vs kew
Women’s Metro 2 South (4th) vs ECHO