READY FOR VICTORY
IF a hunger for goals counts in finals, Geelong’s under-14 girls hockey team is on the verge of bringing home a title on Friday night.
Playing in the Hockey Victoria North West Pennant competition, the junior Sharks knocked in an impressive 85 goals in their 14-game regular season, conceding just eight along the way.
Geelong lost just one match, falling 3-2 at home to Greensborough in Round 4, but turned the tables last week with a 3-1 semi-final win at Greensborough.
This Friday night’s grand final will see the pair meet again in what promises to be an exciting end to the season.
Greensborough booked the return bout when it beat Essendon 4-1 in the preliminary final.
The bulk of Geelong’s goals have come from Ellie Samsa (26) and Zoe Jenkins (25) — both former state junior representatives — who co-captain the team with Charley Russell (five goals).
Interestingly, neither Samsa nor Jenkins scored in the semifinal win so both will be primed to hit the back of the net in the final.
At the other end of the field, goalkeeper Cassie Watson has been outstanding, improving throughout the year, under the guidance of some of the club’s senior goalkeepers.
“Cassie’s been the keeper all year and has done a lot of training with the senior girls and she’s improved out of sight through the season. She’s been fantastic,’’ coach Alex Humphrys said.
The under-14s have thrived under the guidance of Humphrys, a Geelong Premier League player, who has focused on development of the squad as a whole. “We’ve concentrated on making sure they’re all respecting each other and playing well together as a team and I think that teamwork’s paid off really well on the field,’’ said Humphrys, who is looking for her first premiership as a coach.
With a physiotherapy background, Humphrys has also incorporated the FIFA 11+ warmup program into training, which helps prevent injuries. Humphrys was happy that most of Geelong’s goals this season had come from the field rather than a reliance on short corners.
“They’ve been mainly field goals which is really good actually, she said. “A lot of teams rely on short corners and that tends to rely on the umpires’ calls. It’s good that we can do it just on our own.’’
With Geelong reaching the elite level of state hockey via its Premier League teams, blooding junior players for the future is a key focus and several juniors have been tried in senior teams this year, including the under-14s.
Humphrys said that exposure had been a wonderful way of building for the future.
Assistant coach this season has been senior goalkeeper Emily Wardeiner, while Premier League captain Emma Hatton has spent a lot of time with the squad as well.