The year was 1985, where all 5 of our men’s teams finished the home and away season minor premiers. There was much anticipation coming into the finals series to see if history could be made. By Saturday night, Metro 1, West ‘A’, West ‘B’ and West ‘D’ were celebrating premiership success, with State League 3 to play on the Sunday.
The pressure to ensure that the club could achieve a clean sweep, was not lost on the State League team, as they sipped on their lemonades during the premiership celebrations at the club on the Saturday night. A late afternoon time slot ensured the nervous tension extended well into the day, and the game did not disappoint. With a draw at the end of time and extended time, the game progressed to penalty strokes.
After 3 rounds of penalty strokes, the game was finally decided, with Footscray the victors 15-14. Such was the drama with the length of time to complete the game, one of the umpires, legendary HV character Robert ‘chicken’ Howell, was heard telling the players to ‘hurry up’ during the last round of strokes.
At the time, It was a Victorian Hockey record, with no clean sweep of premierships, ever occurring at one club with more than two teams, in its 78 year history.
We look forward to celebrating the 40th anniversary of these teams next year.