Greenhills becomes Marang, opens for play
Sutherland Shire’s new $5.3 million hockey complex was officially opened on Saturday morning.
The opening came with a name change: what we have known as Greenhills on the Kurnell Peninsula over the development of the project is now officially the Marang Parklands Hockey Fields.
Marang, which rhymes with meringue, is a Dharawal Aboriginal language name meaning sand hills.
Sutho’s U15 and U17 Metro teams were the first to play on the new fields, when each recorded wins on Friday night. Our first grade women’s team was an early starter on Saturday afternoon when it was successful against Tartans.
The official opening was by Attorney General and Cronulla MP Mark Speakman and Sutherland Shire Mayor, Carmelo Pesce. There were representatives of Sydney South Hockey Association and Frasers Property and Breen, which held the land on wh9ih Marang was built.
Sutho president Craig Turner represented our club.
The $5.3 million project was funded in part by Sutherland Shire Council, Frasers Property, Breen, the NSW Government, and Sydney South Hockey Association.
“It’s been a real partnership approach to facility development,” said Sutherland Shire Mayor, Carmelo Pesce.
‘Key part of our culture’
“Council knows that sport is a key part of our local culture and identity and that’s why I’m so pleased to be here today, supporting our sporting community and opening this great new facility for hockey.”
Mr Speakman said he was pleased the NSW Government has contributed $700,000 to, “this important local project.
“Investing in this local sports infrastructure helps improve community health and lifestyles, as well as future sporting successes,” he said.
Sydney South Hockey Association President Lyn Smith said SSHA is extremely excited about the Marang Parklands Hockey Fields.
“We have been working closely with Council for many years to ensure that we have the facilities we need to grow hockey in the Sutherland Shire,” she said.
“The facilities allow us to grow the sport locally and to also host State Championships.
Sutho match reports April 6-7-8 2018
Thank you to our talented Sutho photographers for their pictures of the action. Junior competition begins after the school holidays.
MEN
1st grade
Sutherland 3 Moorebank 3
Sutho v Moorebank, and what a game it was.
It was somewhat a repeat of last year’s grand final, only this time it was a draw to two teams that fought hard to gain a win but will have to wait till next time. The effort of the guys was intense and there was nothing left out on the field on a hot afternoon.
The game swung from end to end with near misses by both teams, while there were also great saves by both goal keepers.
We lost Jack Hayes in the 1st half to a strained quad muscle which made it even harder as we needed to reshuffle the team.
I would not like to pick a best and fairest as there were too many great performances.
Unless there is another team out there which we haven’t seen to date I think we will see these two fight out the grand final once again if everything goes to script.
As was the case last year, we are still short of Luke Noblett who will be back in May to take his place in the team – which should also make a big difference to the team. First grade has a bye this weekend, while 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades play at home. Our next match will be 21 April v St George at home.
2nd grade
Sutherland 4 Moorebank 3
This was a fast-paced game that went from end to end.
Moorebank started off more strongly and scored an early goal. Sutho started to move the ball around and took a 2-1 lead into halftime.
The lead kept changing in the second half and the winning goal scored by Josh Walters came with only 7 seconds left on the clock for a 4-3 win to Sutho.
Best and fairest: 3 points Damon Arapa, 2 points Peter Mulcair, 1 point Gavin Bobyk.
Goals: Brendan Sharp 2 and Gavin Bobyk and Josh Walters 1 each.
3rd grade
Sutherland 4 Moorebank. 6
On another very hot afternoon, our third in a row, an entertaining game was played at Moorebank.
Attack won out over defence in the 1st half, with Moorebank leading 5-3 at half time. The 2nd half was slower and more controlled as both teams tired, and the 1-1 scoreline reflected that.
Moorebank played to their strengths and scored a number of goals off corners and direct passes to the back post, even though we identified that pre-game, and despite some interesting decisions, we should have been more alert and defended these better.
Sutho were happy with many parts of our game against last year’s runners up, especially scoring 3 times off corners. We now have 7 goals and 5 scorers in 2 games, both games against semi finalists from 2017. That is encouraging, especially as none were off drag flicks.
Hayden’s deflection on the backstick was excellent, and Blake scored a beauty diving to deflect the cross in, before Mac smashed a hole in the backboard with a thunderous drive off the battery, straight through the goalie’s legs.
The 2nd half had less chances, but the old bald guy dived on a loose ball on the corner, shaved it past the keeper then ran off like he had won the World Cup, only to realise we were still 2 goals down with 3 mins left.
At this point Sean did call out from the sun-bathed dugout that we had them covered, which I think was the 2 hours in the heat talking!
Only indiscretion was a green card to RyanO (Pronounced Rhino), which remains a secret between him and the umpire despite intensive investigation!
Next week we play the defending champs, and we will try and focus more on strategy execution, and less on nicknames for everyone, as well as Brad remembering scrap paper for B&F voting (as Moorebank don’t use paper anymore!)
Good luck to those players having a hockey jaunt to Japan – should be nice and warm!
Points: 2 Wade Tonna, 2 Ryan O’Leary, 1 Blake Hernandez, 1 Mac Dunn
4th grade
Sutherland 2 Moorebank 0
We were first up at Moorebank at 12:30 on Saturday for what was expected to be a hot challenge. Mother Nature put on a display: maybe a little too well, with the mercury sitting around the 30 degree mark, but feeling a lot hotter than that let me tell you!
The first 10 minutes saw some good back and forth action with both teams penetrating the circle for opportunities but both defences holding out. Sutho started to gain momentum and had some really good opportunities that, were once again, thwarted by the Moorebank defence.
It wasn’t until around the 15 minute mark when Jono Rose managed to get around Moorebank’s keeper to slot Sutho’s first goal.
Sutho really built on this and was pushing hard, with Moorebank really on the back foot. Lachie Cartwright managed to get a high ball in the circle and put it in over the Moorebank goalkeeper’s head at the 25 minute mark.
Sutho again, kept pressuring for the remainder of the first half with Moorebank having limited opportunity to make it into Sutho’s circle, and when they did, the defence stood the test.
The second half left off where the first ended, with Sutho applying the pressure.
Moorebank’s attack started to crumble in the blistering conditions with Sutho holding strong and dismissing the majority of the attack for the half.
Sutho had a number of opportunities and credit to the Moorebank backline for holding out.
With a few minutes to go Sutho was under pressure with Moorebank gaining a penalty
With just over a minute to go Moorebank cleaned up some scrappy play at the back by Sutho and managed to get in the circle.
With the keeper out and beat, and with the ball tracking for an open goal, it looked like Sutho was not going to finish with a clean sheet – but Brendon Hoy ran in to save what would have been a certain goal!
Sutho finished 2 nil with everyone putting in a resounding effort in the heat. Stand out performers were Craig Turner and Luke Arapa.
5th grade
6th grade
7th grade
Sutherland 2 Bentstix 0
Today’s game, which was at home, was the first of the season and an important one to win.
Before the game we spoke about controlling the ball and short passes and that worked for us throughout.
There was some lovely central play from Cameron and Alex and good strong half work from Howie and a new member to our team, Ryan Cherry.
A goal from one of our many short corners to Adam Howard (it would’ve been nice to have a few more and this is something we need to practice) put us up 1-0 at half time.
After much needed refreshments and drinks on this hot afternoon the second half was even better and Damian Seager scored to make it 2-0.
An excellent game to start the season, fantastic effort all round and its clarified those parts we need to work on.
Well done to Cameron, Alex and Adam Howard for the 1,2 and 3 points and Adam and Damian for scoring a goal each.
Looking forward to next week‘s game, again at home.
Women
1st grade
Sutherland 3 Tartans 0
It was always going to be a hard match, lining up against a keen Tartans team in very hot, windless conditions at the new Greenhills hockey centre.
Being the first game of the season, there had not been time to refine the skills and combinations that will come during the season. So while everyone put in 100 per cent, the rust showed at times.
We managed to get three up at half time and that’s the way it was when the final siren sounded. The second half was hard work for every player on the field.
Our forward line remained energetic despite the conditions, our defence didn’t allow a chance of a goal and there were periods of nice short passing that kept Tartan’s defences running around in the heat.
We earned plenty of short corners, but unfortunately most results were near misses. Could be training on that!
Best and fairest: Ruth Sannes 3 points, Hannah Burrell 2 points, Rebecca Janes 1 point.
Goals: Jemma Sears, Hannah Burrell and Kristen Agius.
2nd grade
Sutherland 2 Dolphins 2
No match report
3rd grade
Sutherland 3 Pohogs 4
This was our first game as a team and in few cases first game playing hockey.
With that in mind, we have a very strong and determined team. There is a LOT of pace in our forward line and this is something I plan to utilise going forward. This resulted in a lot of breakaway and goal attempts.
The ladies played hard and worked well together. In the end, with only one player on the bench, a few people sick and the heat all combined to make that extra little bit of effort that much harder. That is what cost us the final goal in the closing minutes.
I am very proud of the whole team and today was great signs going forward this season. Our three nominees for best and fairest were 1- Andrea Martin, 2 – Chloe Antilla and 3 – Raina Mifsud.
Sutho Wildcats 2 drew Glebe 2
What a way to start the season: 30 degree heat and eight players over 50!!!!
It certainly was a challenging game. We were down 2-0 in the 1st half, but we came back with a brilliant goal from Lisa Cummins just before the half time whistle.
Heading into the sun in the second half we scored another goal off a short corner smashed in by Lyn Smith.
We have welcomed two new players into wildcats this season, Kathleen Leach and Gemma Rowling. Both played great games – truly worthy of Wildcat status!!!!!
Also a big thanks to Raina Mifsud, who subbed for us after playing a full game before ours. And also thanks to her parents for staying and supporting: what else would you be doing on a Sunday in 30 degree heat??
B&F: 3 Lyn Smith, 2 Gemma Rowling, 1 Vicki Earle.
Metro
Under 17
Sutherland 15 Gordon North Sydney 0
U17 Metro celebrated our first game on our new Friday night home ground at Marang Parklands (Greenhills), with a 15-0 demolition of Gordon North Sydney.
After a win and a loss, we needed to get our campaign back on track. After two weeks with 6 players out, we now had the benefit of virtually a full squad available for the first time, and our performance stepped up accordingly.
Our midfield generally had good control of the game and focussed on delivering quality ball to our strikers. In the main our striker line took advantage of that with a steady flow of circle penetrations and goals, including a few cracking short corners from Nic.
Pleasingly a lot of our goals came after working the ball close to the penalty spot to ensure shots with a high probability of successful outcomes. Matt Turner and Matt Staples combined to demonstrate the tap-in from close range to perfection.
Naomi made her presence felt in the midfield with her aggressive play and quality passing, and got her name on the scoresheet (twice) – it’s been a while since that has happened! Harry also played very constructively in the midfield rather than in his more usual role in the striker line – and our strikers reaped the benefits.
In any game like this, our striker group is always going to see plenty of the ball – and Joel, Nic, Riley and Helena all worked hard at making the most of the opportunities. Helena in particular, through her hard running, excellent support play and smart passing, showed what a force she will be in the competition this year.
Our “back 4” were pretty much impenetrable and kept good control of the ball when called into action, which left Brenna with a very quiet night in goals. There will be more for them to do in the games ahead.
B&F: Naomi 3 pts, Harry 1pt, Helena 1 pt, Nic 1pt
Goals: Nic 3, Harry 3, Naomi 2, Riley 2, Helena 2, Matt T 1, Matt S 1, Joel 1
Metro U15
