There’s nothing bigger than Sutho v Sutho and last Saturday it was in U13B, when the Thorny Devils took on the Blue Tongues.
Of course, there could only be one winner – but the challenge has already gone out about reversing the result next time. Enjoy the teams’ match reports.
And of course, thank you to all the managers and other correspondents from the teams for sending in their team’s stories.
Don’t forget to catch the story and pictures about the Sutho boys’ exploits in Sydney South’s U18 State Championships win at: https://www.sutho.com.au/club-news/our-champions/
Metro
U17 Sutherland 5 Glebe
We faced Glebe on Friday night at Greenhills for our season “restart” – due to a combination of school holidays and u18 state championships, it has been 5 weeks since our last u17 Metro game!
As we were coming off a loss to Glebe in our previous encounter with them, we approached this game with due resolve.
Our running and game intensity was positive right from the start, and we had Glebe pinned down in their half for most of the game. We were 3-0 up at half time, and maintained our intensity during the second half.
While we showed glimpses of our team passing skills, that will improve in the coming weeks as we have the chance to play a solid bloc of games with a reasonably consistent formation.
Nic Donni was in the thick of it at striker, and scored a hat trick. Joel also scored with one of the more impressive drag flicks you will see this season, and Harry chipped in with another goal.
We now have a run of six further games before the next school holiday break, and an opportunity to begin to develop our style of play with hopefully a relatively settled team.
We head to Pennant Hills for the 8:40pm game next Friday – we all hope to get home the same day.
Players B&F: Nic 3, Harry 2, Matt T 1. Goals: Nic 3, Harry 1, Joel 1.
Juniors
Sutho U17 Blue Tongues 9 UNSW 0
On a cold Saturday morning the U17 Blue Tongues had their first home game of the season.
Even before the game started, there were a few issues: three players down with no subs, a frantic search for a missing goalie helmet and two players showing up just 5 minutes before hit off!!
The game started off slowly, but it was soon realised that UNSW had only 9 players, and the scoring chances started to flood in. Despite many shots and short corners from the Blue Tongues, the UNSW defence stood strong.
Finally some great passing in the circle resulted in Josh tapping the ball in, with a well worked first goal. The rest of the first half was controlled by the Blue Tongues, creating many scoring opportunities, but only managing to score one more as we went to half time 2-0 up.
The second half started just like the first: many opportunities with few results. Eventually the first goal for the half was scored, opening the flood gates rwith goals coming from everywhere.
An incident involving Lachie G and UNSW girl tripping over each other saw Lachie squishing the poor girl and managing to hit his head on the way down. After pulling him off for a break to make sure he was okay, Lachie was straight back out there, and, quoting Lachie: “Pretty sure I played better after I hit my head”.
With a big second half resulting in a further 7 goals being scored by the Blue Tongues, and a much better team performance overall, they came out with another win of 9-0 and making it two wins from two games.
Best and Fairest; 3 Lachlan Groundwater, 2 Kye Rowley, 1 Max Heckley l.
Sutho U17 Geckos 4
The u17s Geckos played very well, showing improvement in tackling and pressing. We came away with a 4-0 win. Keeping out of our defence was down to fantastic transferring of the ball and high work rate to tackle back.
Sutho U15A Geckos 6 UNSW 0
Our first of many Friday night away games for the season (if Friday night at Marang is considered a home game), we were off to Daceyville to tackle the gold and black in the shadows!
Sutho started strongly and possessed well, but were too direct in our attack both into the 23 and at the goals, and Uni’s very good keeper was going to save our straight shots all day.
They had a very fast and robust centre back who was clearing most of our defensive raids and throwing solid long balls down field to a very high striker, frustrating our defenders.
However, there was lots of space in the centre and we started using this better to get our midfield wide and release our strikers high and wide early and in near the post in the circle. Eventually Chloe showed excellent persistence on one of these circle entries to get the ball into the goal.
We were 3-0 up at half time, and despite dominating possession, and controlling the game, Uni were playing well enough to keep the contest alive.
Our focus was to continue attacking wide and high, especially on the right and get the players free within three metres of the goal, allowing us to work the ball around the centre back and keeper.
In the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half Uni evened out possession and put us under more pressure, without really threatening our goal, as we lost structure and played too high and congested in the circle.
But later in the half we showed some good transfers around the back and wide passing with width and depth in attack up high, culminating in a number of movements to the baseline. A couple of late goals for a 6-0 win.
Luke was again excellent at left striker, getting to the right areas around left post to slot 3 goals – his second successive hat trick all from about the same position, after missing last week injured.
Adrian scored a lucky goal from the top, with his shot going wide before deflecting back into the goal off the keeper, and Raina provided a good finish on a passing sequence on a corner, which was great to see. Pleasingly, 5 of the 6 goals came from within 3 metres of the goal as per the plan!
Oliver was very busy again in the middle as was Keeghan at the back, both dominating their teammates’ votes in B&F. Keeghan’s brand new 38 ½ inch Osaka cut a swathe through the defence, all on his forestick to prove his coach wrong!
Chloe twisted her ankle late in the game. We all wish her speedy recovery and full fitness. And all the best to Chloe, Raina and Shontae at the State U15 titles next weekend in Grafton. We return to Daceyville to play St George Knights.
Points 3 Oliver, 2 Keeghan, 1 Luke. Goals : Luke 3, 1 each Chloe, Adrian and Raina
Sutho 15B Blue Tongues
The Blue Tongues had a tough game against a strong Bankstown team resulting in a loss.
Due to some unfortunate events including pre-game injuries involving skateboards and misreading of the game location, the Blue Tongues only had 9 players to battle it out against Bankstown.
Unfortunately, the Blue Tongues were under heavy pressure from the start of the game and Bankstown took an early lead. The team worked hard to spread the ball across the back and work it up the field out wide as Bankstown seemed to be dominating in the middle.
The defence continued to work hard and were kept very busy throughout.
It was difficult to attack with only nine 9 players, but all the team persevered, resulting in creating opportunities around the Bankstown goal in the second half. But unfortunately the Blue Tongues couldn’t turn those opportunities into goals and Bankstown took the win.
Although the team had played with only nine players, the teamwork under considerable pressure was commendable.
Best & Fairest: 3 Angus King, 2 Sophie Cherrie, 1 Dominic Craig.
U 13A Sutho Geckos 7 UNSW 0
After 5 minutes the Geckos were leading 3-nil and it seemed that the Sutho goalkeeper was going to have a lonely game.
Noah had volunteered to be our goalie – he had practiced on his Xbox and was super keen – but unfortunately the only time he touched the ball was in the warm-up. For his use of willpower to stay mostly attentive during the game, Noah earned 1 B&F point.
However these types of games can be a real challenge for the stronger team to focus and not lose structure.
Overall the Geckos remained fairly focused throughout the game, although it was also an opportunity in the second half to mix-up the positions as a bit of variety.
This almost resulted in Lily (usually a defender and playing striker) scoring a goal, but unfortunately her shot crashed into the goal post to be subsequently cleared by UNSW.
The UNSW team were competitive in patches, so the Geckos were challenged at times. They had a few breakaway opportunities, but unfortunately for Noah, the Geckos’ defence defused those situations before UNSW could get into our circle.
The midfield work-rate was high ensuring plenty of ball for the strikers. There was some very good passing amongst the strikers setting each other up for goals, although there were a few missed opportunities where shots were pushed straight at the keeper when there were Sutho players standing on the posts for the easy goal if the ball had been passed.
Some goals require particular mention:
– the third goal involved good passing between Jett, Fletcher and onto Matty for a tomahawk shot that the keeper didn’t see;
– the fourth goal involved some very good lead-up work by Corban down along the backline and popping the pass to an unmarked Tomas to score around the keeper; and
– the seventh goal involved a long run by Matty taking the ball into the circle then short passing from Lachlan to Tomas then back to Lachlan to put the ball in the back of the net – a joy to see.
Best & Fairest: Corban Marinos 3, Bree Richardson 2, Noah Palmer 1. Goals: Matt Rose 3, Tomas McCowen 2, Lachlan Staples 2.
U13B Sutho Thorny Devils 1 Sutho Blue Tongues 3
Today’s game was against our club mates in the Sutho Thorny Devils team.
The game was played with good spirits and sportsmanship with both teams showing some very good hockey skills.
There were some great passes in the circle and some really good clearances in the back-line. We are seeing great improvement every week.
Best and fairest: 3 pts Chris Goodman 2 pts Mayah Tait 1 pt: Max Lewis. Goals: Zara Cathcart, Christopher Goodman and Max Lewis 1 each.
U13B, Thorny Devils Sutho Thorny Devils 1 Sutho Blue Tongues 3
‘Battle Royale’ today with a much anticipated Sutho v Sutho contest that had us on our heels in the opening quarter, swamping our usually quick attacking game, and forcing us to defensive modes that we have not had to sustain for long in previous games this season.
When we finally started running on all cylinders, there was some good examples of passing and using players in position to run the other team around, giving us more game in the opposition’s half.
A formidable Blue Tongues front line was tough to deal with, breaking up our flow, and interrupting plays that have been more successful in the last two games, but we soldiered on to pick up a goal, which unfortunately was not enough to challenge the 3 from the Bluetongues.
Capitalisation on several shot opportunities and more composure in the D could have easily seen a much different result for the Thorny Devils.
It was a good game, which highlighted our strengths, and showed up some areas of improvement to focus on in training. Some back to basics, with solid flat-stick tackles, and passing to players who are ‘making space’ will get us on the front foot and strengthen our resolve as a team.
Looking forward to our next game against Sutho to see the improvement in both teams, and maybe even up the tally.
Go Sutho!!
Best and fairest: 3 pts Harley Belbin, 2 Ethan Locke 1 Nicholas Cullen. Goal: Ethan Locke 1.
And a big gallery of pix from the big clash!
Thanks to Philip Cullen for his pix contributions.
Under 11 Bearded Dragons 7 St George Randwick 0
The U11B Bearded Dragons continued to display great skills and teamwork in their first home game of the year, scoring 7 unanswered goals against St George Randwick.
Riley put the first goal on the score sheet after chasing down a ball that everyone else thought was going long.
Making their coaches proud, this very young team then cleared the ball well, passing to each other down the edges, and moved the ball well into the D where the forwards were waiting to pounce on almost all scoring opportunities. S
pecial mention goes to Lachlan for a number of notable goal assists, and to ‘the finisher’ Kaylee for 3 goals.
Best and fairest: 2 pts each Jack Margetson, Eliana Domrow, Rohan Blumire. Goals: Riley de Soza, Eliana Domrow, Lachlan Hoy, Jack Margetson, Kaylee Rule (3).
Men
First grade. Sutho 1 Gordon North Sydney 1
This game, marred by players out and some with minor injuries, was one to put aside as a bad memory and get on with the rest of the season maintaining a positive attitude by all members of the team.
Particularly for the players to remember that they are part of a very successful, happy, united, respected and very together team.
We did miss the presence of Kieran Govers and Jack Hayes who were in Perth trialling for a position in the Australian team.
However no excuses as the team which was there to play against GNS were good enough to defeat a spirited performance by GNS.
Things did not go our way and the opportunities missed if converted, could have led to a win of more than 3 or 4 goals.
Just one of those days and against a team which seems to be a bogey team, as they beat us last year in the 1st round.
First grade has a bye next Saturday before trekking up to Pennant Hills again the following week to play NWS.
B & F: Shane Smith 1, Nathan Ackroyd 2, Brady Anderson 3. Goal: Matt Johnson.
Second grade Sutho 10 GNS 0.
We travelled to Pennant Hills to play Gordon.
Some of the players don’t go that far for a holiday. In fact some players said that they believed it was in a different time zone as an explanation for their lateness!!
Sutho continued its good form from last week, moved the ball around well and created many scoring opportunities.
We took a 5-0 lead into halftime and, unlike a few weeks ago, continued on in the second half to record a convincing 10-0 victory.
Jimmy was on fire and scored 4 goals. Brendo continued his good goal scoring form with a hat-trick. Sully and Blake scored fine goals while the goal by Ralph was described by Coach Gav as “the worst goal I have ever seen “.
Jimmy got the 3 points, Blake 2 and Shippy 1.
Sutho 3rd grade. Bye
Sutho 4th grade 3 GNS 1
Sutho had a great come from behind victory to defeat GNS.
With a few of the 4th grade team absent, we saw a number of juniors step up to fill their places. Luckily with the addition of Sean, Richo, Brendon and CT we were able to bump the average age to just over the required 18!
The early part of the match saw Sutho with a few opportunities to put themselves in front with attempts on goal by Elliot, however unable to slip one past the keeper.
Gordon’s centre back played havoc on Sutho’s over-commitment in tackles, consistently turning, beating and slotting passes to their strikers. This saw Brendon struggling to stay on his feet, finding himself on the ground no less than four times.
Despite many opportunities from Sutho, it was Gordon who was first on the scoreboard. A quick turnaround saw Gordon with a numerical advantage running into the circle with a 2 on 1 and a well-placed, uncontested shot saw it slip past Luke the keeper.
The remainder of the first half saw Sutho consistently playing the ball well down the right-hand side of the field using the Luke, Riley, Hayden combo, but despite plenty forays into Gordon’s 25 the team was unable to penetrate the circle effectively.
The end of the first half saw Sutho reduced to 10 men while Blake and Luke spent time in the naughty chair.
The second half began with some of the best ball movement from 4th grade all year. Under pressure, the ball moved from left to right, back to front in a fluid and sharp manner.
Gordon’s danger man in the back was effectively marked and resulted in desperate long passes from the back line to their strikers.
Marking tightened across the park, restricting Gordon’s movements, allowing CT and Richo to set up plays from the centre of the field.
Goal number one for Sutho came from the first corner of the match. A clean hit from Jonno saw the ball hitting the backboard to equal the score.
Encouraged, Sutho won another corner shortly afterwards. This time a well-placed flick by Charlie was intercepted by the goalpost only to be cleaned up again by Jonno.
A bit of nervous play by Sutho followed as pressure from Gordon (but mostly ourselves) mounted. Thankfully the pressure was relieved when Sutho strikers forced a turnover in Gordon’s back line where the keeper found himself in a 2 on 1. A well-timed pass and clean finish from Matty Q saw Sutho get up 3-1 with 5 minutes to go.
Jonno walked away with a convincing man of the match performance with Riley and CT rounding out the points. The win sees fourth grade hovering outside the top 4 with an extra game in hand.
Sutho 5th grade 4 Sydney Uni 1
This week was our first rematch of the season, as we met Sydney Uni again. The form of round 1’s 1-0 win in Sutho’s heat meant nothing as we played on a cold, chilly night.
The early going was pretty even as Uni tried to dominate through a few skilled players and we built our play through a team-orientated passing game. As the half wore on Uni dropped away but we kept our pace and were rewarded with 3 goals off the back of our midfield passing and hard work up front.
Uni came out strong in the 2nd half, pushing to get back in the game and got a goal back off a cheap turnover in our midfield.
That lapse was the last we gave up, as the whole team toughened up defensively and as Uni tired we took control again and saw the win home safely to keep our streak going.
Points: 3 M. Quinlivan, 2 L. Zatschler, 1 P. Rowling. Goals: M. Rowling 2, M. Quinlivan, D. Sokolovski,
Sutho 6th grade
Sutho 7th grade Sutho 2 Norwest Strikers 1
We seemed to start this game with 100% commitment straightaway, which was unusual for us. The team was running into open spaces as we spoke about and controlling the ball well and our position showed.
Strikers also were playing well but Jordon Wood popped a goal in to give us a 1-0 lead. Our opponents created some short corner chances and scored one to make it 1-1 at the break. At half time it was hard to pick a fault as we seem to be playing so well and and creating chances.
So we came out again with the same attitude and again Jordan tapped one in from a Darren Shaw shot. Great game for seventh-grade with only one substitution to use and looking forward to next week.
Points shared this week Conner Crowley 2, Cameron Bayley 2 and Caleb 2 with both goals credited to Jordan Wood.
Women
I had a greatly appreciated folder of pictures sent to me of the first grade women’s game. Unfortunately they were in a format that my publishing program could not handle. I’d love game pictures, but could maybe half a dozen pictures be sent after being saved in the jpg format? Regards, John
First grade Sutherland 3 Esquires 2
We played a strong and solid Esquires, winning 3-2.
We had 2 clever counter attack goals and a crisp short corner. They didn’t give up giving us a good nudge and scored late goals but we kept them out in the dying minutes.
Player points: Bronte Ryan 3, Hannah Burrell 2, Paris Barnard 1. Goals: Paris Barnard 1, Susanne Hol 1, Ruth Sannes 1.
