COUNTRY TITLE TO ALBURY
A POWERFUL Albury Wodonga proved too strong for Geelong in the final of the Country Women’s Hockey Championships at Stead Park yesterday.
Clearly the underdog going into the final, Geelong did well to hold the score to 0-0 at half-time with a solid defence effort.
But two goals in two minutes (28 and 30min) followed by another six minutes later broke the game open. Albury put the final nail in the coffin two minutes from full time to complete a 4-0 win.
Albury’s goal came from Sam Daly, Eloise McCormack, Chelsie Hird and Isabelle Campigli, with Tracy Johnson awarded the best player medal.
The result ended Geelong’s streak after it had claimed three straight titles.
Geelong also lost the Master final 4-0 to Ballarat.
The Geelong men missed the grand final at Hawthorn when they suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Warrnambool early yesterday, but rebounded to win the thirdfourth playoff 3-1 over Goulburn Valley.
Geelong’s women fielded a new-look team with most of its senior Premier League players rested for the weekend.
Coach Colin Pearson was impressed with the progress throughout the weekend.
“If you’re trying to promote your juniors and build their confidence for the future, it was a good opportunity this weekend for some of the Geelong girls to get in there with some senior players and build their skills,’’ he said.
“For the girls to get together for the first time on Saturday and then to see a lot of improvement over the weekend is a really satisfying thing. So while the scoreline wasn’t what we wanted, certainly the way we played and the improvement we’ve seen, it’s been a really positive thing for the girls.’’
Among Geelong’s better players across the weekend were Premier League midfielder Emmaline Moore, captain Courtney Pearson and Erica White in defence, goalkeeper Emily Wardeiner and Caroline Pearce.