The Wimmera Hockey Association sent three teams to the Victorian Junior Country Championships in Melbourne this weekend and they enjoyed mixed success.

Under 15 Boys

The Under 15 Boys team earned the opportunity to celebrate their first win at this tournament in a number of years, when the defeated Ballarat by two goals on Saturday evening at the Footscray Hockey Centre.

A converted short corner by Jason Reichelt and a tomahawk hit into the top right corner of the goals by Oskar Bennett gave the Wimmera two goals, and by denying Ballarat any score earned the win.

Above - the Wimmera Under 15 Boys team - Photo from the Wimmera Hockey Association Facebook page.

They followed this up with a one goal victory over the Warrnambool District Hockey Association team on Sunday morning at the Essendon Hockey Centre.

A scoreless draw with East Gippsland in their last game allowed them to finish the weekend in sixth place in the Under 15 Boys age group out of ten teams.

In the final Hockey Albury Wodonga had to score 4 goals to overcome North Central who scored 3.

Under 17 Girls

The Under 17 Girls team opened their tournament with a one all draw with Hockey Albury Wodonga, and they earned another draw against the same opponent when they next met on Sunday morning.

Their biggest defeat came in their second game, but they were not disgraced when they went down to North Central by only two goals.

Two single goal losses to East Gippsland and one to Warrnambool rounded out their tournament.

Warrnambool won the final against North Central by a goal, the same narrow margin that they defeated the Wimmera team on Saturday.

Under 17 Boys

The Under 17 Boys did not enjoy much success, going down in all of their preliminary games, but they did experience victory in the play-off game for fifth and sixth positions. In this game Wimmera defeated East Gippsland by two goals, having lost to this opponent by two goals to one in their meeting earlier in the tournament.

The Association's senior representative teams will compete in the Senior Country Championships during the long weekend in June, at Geelong's Stead Park for the Women and the Greensborough Hockey Centre in Melbourne for the Open division.

Results

Under 15 Boys

Day One
1-2 loss to West Gippsland
0-1 loss to North Central
0-6 loss to Hockey Albury Wodonga
2-0 win over Hockey Ballarat

Day Two
1-0 win over Warrnambool District
0-0 drew with East Gippsland

Final
Hockey Albury Wodonga 4 defeated North Central 3

Final Ladder

          GD     Pts
1 Hockey Albury Wodonga      22 18
2 North Central 9 18
3 West Gippsland 3 12
4 Warrnambool District 15 10
5 Goulburn Valley 3 10
6 Wimmera -57
7 Hockey Central Victoria 2 6
8 East Gippsland -9 4
9 Warrnambool District -26 3
10 Hockey Ballarat -14 0

Under 17 Girls

Day One
1-1 draw with Hockey Albury Wodonga
0-2 loss to North Central
0-1 loss to Warrnambool District
0-1 loss to East Gippsland

Day Two
0-0 drew with Hockey Albury Wodonga
1-2 loss to East Gippsland

Final
Warrnambool District 1 defeated North Central 0

Final Ladder

          GD     Pts
1 Warrnambool District 6 13
2 North Central 7 12
3 Hockey Albury Wodonga      -2 6
4 East Gippsland -6 6
5Wimmera -52

Under 17 Boys

Day One
1-5 loss to Hockey Albury Wodonga
1-2 loss to East Gippsland
0-1 loss to Hockey Ballarat
1-3 loss to North Central

Day Two
2-6 loss to Hockey Central Victoria

Final (5-6 play off)
2-0 win over East Gippsland

Final
Hockey Albury Wodonga 1 defeated North Central 0

Final Ladder

          GD      Pts
1      Hockey Albury Wodonga      13 15
2 North Central 2 8
3 Hockey Central Victoria 5 7
4 Hockey Ballarat -3 7
5 East Gippsland -5 5
6Wimmera -120

Wimmera Hockey Association | Round Five Preview

After a week off for the Junior Country Championships last weekend, the Wimmera Hockey Association competition resumes on Saturday with a full round of games to be played at Yanac.

At the end of this round each opponent will have been played once, giving a good indication of where each team stands within their division.

Open

The Open division ladder has taken on a predictable look, with the Yanac Tigers, Warrack Hoops, Kaniva Cobras and Dimboola Burras currently making up the top four, which is the same as their finishing positions for the last three seasons. The challenge is there for the Nhill Rangers and Horsham Hurricanes to break up this group of four over the next ten rounds.

The closest game for round five should be between the Warrack Hoops and Dimboola Burras. The Hoops are missing a number of regular starters from last season, although so far this year their replacements have done the job expected of them, whilst the Burras best combination is quite capable of matching the best teams in the competition, but it only takes the loss of one or two players and their effectiveness drops dramatically.

In the other games, the top placed Tigers should not have too much trouble defeating the bottom placed Rangers and the Cobras have the chance to return to the winners list when they take on the Hurricanes.

Women

The feature game of the Women's competition will give the Kaniva Women the chance to prove that they deserve to hold second place on the ladder when they take on the more consistent Horsham Jets.

Kaniva have not enjoyed time this high on the ladder for many years and will need to win games against this calibre of opponent if they are to remain a serious contender towards the end of the season.

The Jets have the experience at the top of the ladder over recent seasons and they will be determined to prove that they are still deserving of a place amongst the competition leaders.

Another top versus bottom game will see the Dimboola Roos take on the Warrack Women and it is likely that the final result will reflect their relative ladder positions.

The Yanac Women have not replicated their ladder leading form from 2016 yet this year but have the chance to do so against the Nhill Thunderbirds who are struggling for players this season, but when they have their top team available they are capable of matching the top teams.

Under 16

The Warrack Revengers and the Dimboola Kangaroos will play for outright second place on the Under 16 ladder, with both teams having shown some good form this year but also some inconsistency.

The Yanac Warriors will be the last team to have the opportunity to take on the undefeated reigning premiers, the Nhill Leopards, but even with the home ground advantage, it is hard to see them finish ahead of the Leopards.

The winner of the game between the Horsham Bombers and the Kaniva Raiders should claim a place in the top four by the end of the round, and both are capable of a win, and with the prize for the vanquished being the bottom place on the ladder an entertaining game should be played.

Under 12

Form is hard to judge in the Under 12s with teams sharing players to allow more even games, but ladder positions suggest that Yanac Lowan Stars, Kaniva Rampagers and Dimboola Kookaburras should win their games.