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Golden Day for DeFris & Brown

Saturday 24th July: - At the IHA National Championships, for the DeFris Under 15’s and Brown Open age categories Victoria has taken out both competitions. In doing so both teams also took out the Fair Play awards in their respective categories.

After losing in a close game 3 - 2 to NSW in the round robin game and finishing second on the ladder, the young Victorian DeFris team firstly overcame Western Australia in the Semi Final 9 - 1 to meet NSW again in the Final (after they had comfortably beaten South Australia 12 -1).

The Final was a hard fought affair with Victoria taking a 2 -0 lead over the favourites NSW after the first period. NSW came back in the second with an early goal to make it 2 -1. The scored stayed that way going into the final period. NSW scored early again to make it 2 - 2, but Victoria kept their cool and scored just under 4 mins later to take the lead back. Then, with around 3 mins to go, scored again and hold on for a 4 - 2 victory.

Western Australia beat South Australia 2 -1 to take Bronze.

The Victorian senior mens Brown Team finished on top of the ladder after beating NSW in their last game so got a break going into the Final. NSW faced of for the semi final against South Australia and dispatched them with a 5 - 1 win. One of the highlights of the game being SA's only goal for the tournament. This meant SA took the Bronze and NSW moved into the final.

Although winning all their games in the round robin series the Victorian team had not played well in its last two games. The final however was what they had come for and after the DeFris success, losing was not an option. Playing NSW always makes for a good game and the final was a not a dissappointment. 

NSW's had kept their best goalie away from Victoria during the rounds and although Victoria outshot NSW 3 - 1 the game was on a knife each throughout. After the first period the scores were locked at 0- 0 (although the shots were 11 - 2 to Victoria). The second period opened with a quick goal to Victoria but ended with a late goal to NSW menaing the game went into the third period locked t 1 - 1. Victoria scored early to take the lead 2 -1 and although kept the pressure on, there only needed to be a slight error and the game could be heading to overtime. This was not the case with the Vics closing the game out to record Victoria's first Gold in Browns for many years.

Congratulations to both teams and their coaches, managers and other supporters on a great result for Victoria, made all the better being held in our home State at a great venue.

Special mention to the organising committee, all the other helpers and to the on and off ice officials for the outstanding job they did and for their efforts in making the two tournaments such a great success.

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Gold Gold Gold  for Tange

In an almost perfect tournament Simon Holmes has made it 11 Golds from 14 Tange teams.

The boys played some brilliant hockey throughout the week and the Gold Medal was well deserved. The tournament was capped off with a 3 goals to 2 win against NSW with Brendan McDowell scoring the winning goal with 57 seconds left on the clock in the last period.

Our round-robin series only saw us lose 1 game which was to NSW 2-6.

Game 1 vs ACT produced an 8-0 victory. Highlights were Austin Mckenzie with 1 goal and 3 assist and a clean sheet for Fraser Carson in the net. Our Hardest Worker award went to Brendan Knox.

Game 2  SA 0 Vic 2. Highlights; Clean sheet for Mitch Waters in net and the Hardest Worker was Julius Vitikka.

Game 3 Qld 0 Vic 10. Highlights; 6 goal second period, points were shared around the whole team, another shut out for Fraser Carson and the Hardest Worker was Kevin Dow.

Game 4 NSW 6 Vic 2. Hardest Worker in this game was Matt Stringer.

Game 5 WA 0 Vic 3.  Highlights were 3 points to Austin McKenzie another clean sheet for Fraser Carson in the net and our Hardest Worker was Brendan McDowell.

Game 6. Semi final against WA and a repeat score line at 3 – 0. The highlight here was the fact that Victoria was into another Gold Medal game. Mitch waters had another shut out and our hardest worker was Jeremy Brown.

Game 7 Grand Final. After a great start, we came to a tight second period with NSW tying up the game.  Third equally tense, especially after Brendan slotted the last goal and NSW had VIC camped in thier own zone for the remainder of the game. Hardest Worker award in this great game went to Mitch Waters who managed to stay extremely focussed regardless of what the NSW team threw at him.

Congratulations to everyone who had a hand in this great result.