Late penalty proves costly for Geelong

A penalty stroke four minutes from full time gave Toorak East Malvern a 3-2 win over Geelong in women’s Premier League hockey on Saturday.

Geelong had produced an equalising goal — the second of the match from Eliza Flanagan from a penalty corner — just a minute earlier to set the Sharks up for a valuable point.

The resulting stroke and successful conversion from Darci Kleinschmidt, however, put the nail in the coffin.

While disappointed with the loss, and in particular some poor defence on the penalty corners which allowed TEM’s first two goals, Sharks coach Shane Walters wasn’t too perturbed.

“To push them and give ourselves a chance was pleasing. It wasn’t disappointing, the result was, but that’s only part of it,’’ Walters said.

Toorak captain Amelia Hough put Geelong on the back foot in just the third minute, with the first penalty corner goal, but Geelong pulled it back 24 minutes in through Flanagan’s first goal, a deflec- tion at a corner shot. Flanagan equalised at 66 minutes, the stroke came a minute later.

“TEM is a club we see as middle of the road and we’re trying to get to that middle rung. To push them and give ourselves a chance was pleasing,’’ Walters said.

Walters said Flanagan was a standout through the midfield with strong back-up from Emmaline Moore, while Elise Webster did well in defence.

“Em Moore was very good through the midfield, she was quite strong on the ball and the longer the game went on she got more involved,’’ Walters said. “Our strikers worked pretty hard today, too, after some specific feedback from the last few weeks that they need to lift the workrate a bit. They responded really well and it was a big difference.’’

The women’s reserves went down 7-0.

Geelong’s Vic League 1 men struggled on their road trip to Ballarat, losing 5-0 to West Vic, although three of the goals came in the final seven minutes of the match.

“We held them pretty well until halftime and then for most of the second half,’’ coach Terry Moore said.

Leading 1-0 at halftime, West Vic scored from a contentious penalty stroke midway through the second half before the late flurry pushed the scoreline out.

“They’re a pretty fast, slick side but it was quite a flattering scoreline to them,’’ Moore said. “The boys fought it out to the end so that was pretty good.

Sean Fitzgerald was Geelong’s best rolling through defence, but it was pretty even across the board elsewhere.

Geelong had 14 players unavailable on Saturday and had to give West Vic a walkover in the reserves.