WA Over 40's - 2012 Match Reports

Day 3: WA vs QLD - Friday, September 28, 2012

The early morning match time of 8:30 am or the thunder and lightening that Melbourne put on display fortunately proved to have no effect on our game. Loads of pressure on the Queensland backline, a solid defense and a textbook attack along the baseline by our newbie Kylie and a fabulous finish from Tammy resulted in a 1-0 score for us before halftime. 

In the second half more pressure on the Queenslanders won us a penalty corner, which was converted by our “fearless leader for the day” Robbie, into a beautiful goal. 
In the last 5 minutes of the game our opponents somehow got past our defense and managed to score. 
Special mention to our amazing newbie goalie Nat who did some fantastic saves to keep us in the game and congrats to our newbie coach, Riecky with her first win of the Tournament. 

In the afternoon there was some shopping happening on the bustling Smith Street, we deserved it! 

Result: WA 2 - QLD 1

WA vs ACT - Saturday, September 29, 2012

With the promise of rain and hail and the dark grey clouds to match it, we started our second tournament game expecting to be running for cover at some stage. We were lucky and missed most of the bad weather as did the MCG where the Footy GF took place at the same time. 

We had a great start of the game and managed to score within 3 minutes. 
Our goalie Nat did get some touches but mainly kept herself warm by sprinting to collect the ball for the fullbacks, because our solid defense did a great job keeping ACT out of our defensive circle. 

Sticking to our plan of pressing the ACT defence hard, we got plenty of shots at goal and penalty corners of which we got another goal. 

In the second half we managed to score one more goal but overall we could have done better. 

Result: WA 3 - ACT 0 

Goal scorers: Sam, Robbie and “G” 

WA vs NSW - Sunday, September 30, 2012

Due to the previous 2 days results, we were now 1 st on the ladder, however, we knew this game against the 2011 Champions would be a tough one. 
As in the previous 2 days, we treated it like any other game and again, we had a flying start. 
The score was 1-0 for WA after 10 minutes in the game and we had an opportunity to score a second goal after we were rewarded a penalty stroke. 
Sadly the ball did not make it past the NSW goalie, so we had to push even harder to try to get another goal. 
After a few defensive mistakes NSW managed to score 2 goals before halftime and for the first time this tournament we were behind. 

The NSW girls started the second half really well and scored again within 10 minutes. 
Our tireless forwards kept running, midfield continued to deliver great passes and transfers by our defence created opportunities which we capitalised on with 10 minutes to go and came home strong and finished with a draw. 

Ladder at end of Round 3, WA girls on top! Great effort! Goal scorers: Rocco and Robbie (2) 

Result: WA 3 - NSW 3

WA vs VIC - Tuesday, October 2, 2012

These are the reports no one likes to write. What can I say about the game? 
The Vics played very smart hockey and put us under plenty of pressure so we were not able to play our game. 
They scored some amazing goals even though Nat made some awesome saves. They were just better on the day! 
I guess for us the positives are that we never gave up and kept trying, creating scoring opportunities and penalty corners, but unfortunately could only convert one in to a goal. 
The other positive was that we had our full team back after Sam got injured in the ACT game and it was great to have her out there. 

Tomorrow the final round game and will be facing Tassie. Our positions on the ladder now in second position, unfortunately with a few other teams, so it is pertinent for us to win - go WEST! 

Result: WA 1 - VIC 5 

Goal scorer: Robbie

WA vs TAS - Wednesday, October 3, 2012

After our daily pool session we all got together for a very important team meeting. 
Because of our position on the ladder, in second position, but with 3 other teams, we had to beat the Tassies or draw to ensure a position in the final 4. 
The weather in Melbourne had picked up since the Footy GF and it promised to be a lovely day for a game of hockey. 
The game saw scoring possibilities for both team and an interesting umpiring decision made us having to defend a Tassie penalty corner, which unfortunately made it past Nat, our goalie. 
There was still time to score the equalizer so we kept attacking and creating opportunities, but unfortunately we were not able to score. Even worse, due to the goal difference, we missed out on the final 4 spot by 2 points. 
Obviously we were incredibly disappointed after a great start in the first part of the week. 
We now play for 5th and 6th position against ACT on Friday morning. 

Result: WA 0 - TAS 1

5th / 6th Playoff - WA vs ACT - Friday, October 5, 2012

Our last game of the Tournament, competing for fifth and sixth position, was an early one again, 8 am! 
The first half remained goal-less even though we spent about 95 % of the time in the ACT defensive 25, where 10 of their 11 players had positioned themselves and caused a few problems for our attack. 
This was not really what we had planned for the day, we wanted to finish on a real high after the disappointment of not making top 4. 

In the second half, our patience and persistence finally paid off and a great pass from Fran, a beautiful run by Ned and fab finish off by “G” got us on the board. 
Soon after, more goals followed, the second one scored by Sam or “G”, the jury is still out on that one! 
Then a determined Robbie flicked a beautiful ball over the goalie for the third goal. 
This was followed by Hando, who needed 3 go’s to score because the umpire wasn’t very cooperative and kept on blowing her whistle a little bit prematurely and awarded us penalty corners rather then goals, not once but twice. 
Hando didn’t really mind and scored what we call a “sneaky lisa” penalty corner to get the job done anyway. 
Robbie, who in the final minutes of the game managed to top up her number of goals even more and is our top scorer for the tournament, put the fifth point on the scoring board. 
It will be interesting to see what our coach will look like tonight; she promised to color her hair red if we would score 3 goals or more, I guess we have achieved this, so,… there may be some colourful photos on the website in the very near future. 

Result: WA 5 - ACT 0