Geelong’s women in form to keep title
GEELONG is well placed to chase a hat-trick of Victorian country women’s hockey titles at Stead Park today.
The home side topped the A Division pool with four wins and a draw from five matches over the weekend.
They meet Central Victoria in this morning’s 1st v 4th knockout semi-final where the winner meets the victor from the Goulburn Valley v USA 2nd v 3rd semi.
Despite finishing on top, though, the semi opponent happens to be the one side Geelong has yet to defeat in the long weekend tournament.
Geelong opened the championship in the fog on Saturday morning with a 2-0 win over Ballarat and ended the day with an impressive 3-0 result over the visiting USA invitational team.
Yesterday’s results were the 0-0 draw with Central Victoria, followed by a 5-0 win over East Gippsland and a 3-0 win over Goulburn Valley.
Geelong last year won a thrilling final against Albury Wodonga, 3-0 on shootout.
Today’s final is scheduled to start at 3pm.
Geelong’s A2 side also topped its pool yesterday and will meet fourth-placed Latrobe Valley in this morning’s semi-final with the winner to face either Sunraysia or Wimmera in the final.
B grade matches were still being played last night, but Geelong is expected to be playing in semi-finals this morning.
Meanwhile, Geelong’s men struggled in their Country Championships series at Greensborough, winning only one of four matches played over the weekend.
The Sharks opened Saturday’s games with a 3-1 loss to East Gippsland, before going down 5-0 to the powerful Albury Wodonga later in the day.
After an unlucky 2-1 loss to Ballarat yesterday morning, they thrashed Warrnambool 9-1 in the final pool game. They will meet Warrnambool again this morning in a playoff for fourth and fifth.