Not something you see every day: a kicking back in first grade.
The worst of winter neatly powered back in at game time in first grade men’s 13-0 downing of St George-Randwick at Kyeemagh on Saturday afternoon.
With departing aircraft powering low over the field into a monster, freezing headwind, it was an afternoon for aeroplane nuts if they could find somewhere decent to shelter. St George, by contrast, were well down on power, with more than half their first grade squad missing – and the holes filled by brave hearts from second grade who had just been whacked 11-0 by Sutho.
Special mentions should be made of Buzz Halyard in first grade who thumped in four goals, closely following the example of Donny Sharpe who did the same in second grade.
Call outs: This week we should also give a couple of other call outs: Firstly, to the St George women’s first grader who played as a kicking back for her game against Sutho women on Saturday. Great effort. That’s her in the feature picture, putting her body on the line. She did put on a helmet for corners.
Also, thanks go to Ryde Hockey Club, who extended some great hospitality the previous Saturday night. Our senior teams ventured there for chilly (very) late night games and were more than happy when they were hosted to a hot meal by Ryde afterward. Fine hospitality that was most appreciated.
Wazza’s near-heart attack: They don’t come any more true blue Two Blues than life member and former club president, Warren Hollyman. It seems Wazza got deeply agitated on Monday when he read that St George had knocked off our first grade team 13-0.
No doubt Lyn was trying to calm his fevered brow as he was frantically firing off emails in all directions to find out what had caused this catastrophe.
Misprint. All was well. Go Wazza.
Comp tables: And, with the season rapidly winding down to finals, don’t forget to check all the comp tables for men, women and juniors. They’re after each series of reports.
One remarkable progress report is that every one of our 12 junior teams is in the top four of their comps. A wonderful effort, not only from the kids, but also from our dedicated coaches and managers – and the Mums and Dads who get them to their games each weekend.
Thanks to Men’s Convenor Andrew Hoy for compiling the tables.
Match reports
Men
Sutho first grade 13 St George 0
Unfortunately this was not a match to be remembered, with St George/Randwick fielding only seven 1st graders and filling in with 2nd graders.
We fell into a lapse, especially in the second half, trying to score goals from all sorts of angles – it shouldn’t have happened.
Instead of using the game as an opportunity to practice set plays on corners, greater use of the ball in the circle and creating more goal scoring opportunities we did what a lot of teams do when playing a much lesser team. We became lazy and did not do the things which would put us in good stead for the final series when the situation presented itself.
I may be a little critical at this point, but greater discipline should be practiced and consistency achieved, no matter the opposition.
We have our last home match next weekend against Gordon North Sydney, who have troubled us in the last two seasons. So hopefully we will re-gather and play to the high standards we have achieved this year and get ready for the semi finals the next week.
B & F: Christian Halyard 1, Matt Johnson 2, Mitch Wray 3.Goals: Mitch Wray 1, Jack Hayes 1, Matt Bennett 1, Brady Anderson 3, Christian Halyard 4.
Sutho 2nd grade 11 St George 0
The penultimate match of the season was played in blustery conditions at Kyeemagh.
Sutho started off quickly and a number of promising scoring opportunities were squandered by impatient finishing before the team settled down and started to play with composure and structure.
As a result they were able to put 11 goals on the board.
The highlight was four great goals from Donny: he deservedly got the 3 points with Jimmy, Michael and Pete collecting 1 each.
Michael managed 2 goals and Ralph, Brendo, Zac, Blake and Mason got 1 each.
One more game until the semifinals and the team will hopefully continue to improve and go all the way.
Sutho 3rd grade
With two byes – the first on Saturday – thirds have finished their season. We’ll miss the most colourful match reports – especially when Robbo was on song.
Sutho 4th grade 0 St George 2
Round 20 proved to be quite a tough one for Sutherlands 4th Grade, coming up against an experienced St George Side in dry and windy conditions.
The Saints started the game in control, dominating the possession for a majority of the 1st half. We defended well, and were unlucky to go 1-0 down off a Saints short corner.
In response, we found another gear and started to gain some momentum going into half time, producing some great opportunities in the attacking circle and with short corners. We came out of the second half with a few new tactics kindly suggested by our experienced backline, with a focus on controlling the pace of the game better through possessing the ball longer.
This seemed to pay dividends as we began to dominate the game, and create more and more chances.
But after dominating the entire second half, we seemed to lack that final finishing touch in attack that gave us a 4-2 win against 1st placed Ryde last round.
With most players moving up the field, our defenders had to work hard in defence to keep a few young and fast forwards from increasing their lead.
An overall impressive effort from our defence kept us in the hunt, but were unfortunate to go 2-0 down off another St George short corner.
For what was a tough round, we still remain very confident with the brand of hockey that our 4th grade side has been producing, and remain highly ambitious leading into the final series.
Points: 3-Peter Coroneo, 2-Luke Arapa, 1-Jonathan Rose
Sutho 5th grade 1 Ryde 2
It was a big game for 5th grade this week: A win or draw to lock in the minor premiership. It was a top of the table clash with Ryde, who were two points behind us on the ladder. The boys were keen, ready and fired up.
The game got off to a good start with a short corner conversion from Eythan Rowling. Many attempts followed but Ryde had a wall in defence, and while we had many circle penetrations, and corners, nothing resulted.
Ryde only had two short corners and a total of six shots through the game, but managed to put two in, resulting in the minor premiership for them.
The boys have taken away some good lessons, especially with what our forwards need to do to put more on the board and get more consistent results.
Next week’s semifinal game against Ryde again will prove if the lessons that needing learning, were learnt.
Best and fairest: 3 Eythan Rowling, 2 Lachlan Cartwright and 1 Geoff Noy. Goal: Eythan Rowling.
Sutho 6th grade 2 St George 0
So two rounds to go.We have cemented third spot down, nothing can change that. It’s time to start getting plans in action for semi finals.
Unfortunately we had a couple of late withdrawals at the weekend, but it was no excuse not to work on our plans going forward.
Our first win for the day was Ol Mate Gus coming along to help us out in the dugout with subbing: it is a massive help to the on-field captain.
We had a strong start with Jack Mecham scoring from a short corner, but even though Saints never looked like scoring a goal it took us til the last 10 minutes for Mark Brookfield to put in a second goal.
It stayed 2-0 and hopefully we can keep building on this in our last round game next weekend.
Our 3 points went to Liam Grey for the second week in a row, followed by Sean Ryan and Luke Mecham.
Sutho 7th grade 2 Sydney Uni 0
This year’s finale game for us was held on a sunny afternoon at Lidcombe and it was one we wanted to win.
With a large number of supporters on the bank we headed into the sun and wind for first half with an aim of being first to the ball in any contest.
We worked hard and improved our passing and ball control as the game went on and proved to ourselves we can play a decent game of hockey.
The score remind 0–0 at half time and with nothing but praise for the performance we again spoke about being first on the ball and the advantage we would get with the wind behind us and having possession of the ball.
It wasn’t long before our young gun Jordan Wood put the ball in behind Uni’s skilled goalie. Very shortly after from a short corner Adam Howard scored a second for the team.
A big cheer from the fans and the dog and we were on our way for a win. Great pressure from here on until the end of the game meant that we had most of the possession and a good performance to finish the season.
Looking forward to next year with nearly everyone promising to return. Some players will move up and we are looking forward to the new juniors joining us.
Many thanks to every committee member who has helped on our way and works extremely hard for the club, we would not be playing hockey if it wasn’t for you guys.
Best and fairest: Alex Doyle 1 point, Cameron Bayley 2 points, and Jordan Wood 3 points. Goals: Jordan Wood and Adam Howard.
Men’s comps tables
Women
Our first grade women had a double header on the weekend, with a home game on Saturday and journeying to Bankstown on Sunday.
Sutho 1st grade 3 St George 0 on Saturday
Going into the last weekend of the regular competition and the last home game this year, our goal was to end well, have fun and ‘play for a mate’.
It was a bit of a surprise to find out that St George was playing without a goalkeeper, so our aim was to get lots of outcomes in the circle. In the first half we scored 3 goals, in the second half unfortunately none of our attacks resulted in a goal.
Overall, the team played well and each week we continue to build on our game plan, playing attacking hockey, setting up a good press and controlling the game in midfield and defence.
Player points: 3 Bronte Ryan, 2 Iris Vanhecke, 1 Kristen Agius. Goals: Paris Barnard 1, Ruth Sannes 1, Cathryn Johnson 1.
Sutho 1st grade 4 Easts 0 on Sunday
This was our last round game and the outcome of this game wouldn’t have any effect on our position on the ladder.
Nonetheless, this game was important to reconnect with our mates, remember what our game plan was and to be able execute it well.
It was a very windy day, so we had to make sure we ran the right way. Lucky we won the toss.
We played a great game of hockey today.
We had the patience and vision to pass stick to stick. We won the 50/50 balls. There was a lot of talk/calls and we listened to them. We made great leads, ran the ball into the circle for a positive outcome, of which we created plenty.
All in all, we executed our game plan very well: we are back playing as we should be and we are ready for the semi-final on Saturday. Bring it on.
Last but not least I want to thank Sarah and Jess for joining us today.
#thisisouryear #youareawesome
Best and fairest: 3 points Iris. 2 Ruth and 1 Clare. Goals: Iris 2, Ruth 2.
Sutho 3rd grade Wildcats 1 Easts (3) 1
A disappointing result for Wildcats’ last game of the rounds.
Wildcats never switched on and Easts scored in the first 10 mins. We lacked focus and couldn’t master the basic skills of trapping and passing.
We were unable to maintain possession and Easts were fast at picking up stray balls and capitalising on Wildcats’ errors.
Our defence was under constant pressure but did well and managed to keep Easts out for a half time score of 1 nil.
The second half started with a little more enthusiasm with Wildcats keeping the ball in our attacking half. Lots of corners and shots at goal, but the Easts goalie saved the day and kept Wildcats scoreless until the last 5 mins of play to equalise the score.
Hopefully we have that out of our system and can return to a better level of play for the finals series.
Best and fairest: 3 Kath Hails, 2 Karen Hodgson, 1 Kirsty Margetson. Goal: Kath Hails.
Women’s comps tables
Metro
Sutho U17 4 Briars 1
Despite quite a few recent losses, Briars put in a spirited performance and made Sutho work hard for their win tonight.
It was an interesting game – and one that demonstrated circle penetrations and shots on goal aren’t enough to register big scores if we don’t take care to work the ball past the opposition goalkeeper!
Sutho’s ball movement and attack in the first half looked pretty good – yet we went into the half-time break with just a 1 goal lead.
The half-time message was to keep the pressure on Briars, and look for the extra pass in the “D” before making the final shot on goal.
Our weight of possession and circle penetrations eventually achieved more results in the second half. All goals to our strikers tonight – Blake, Donni and Harry.
Next week is our final game before the finals.
B&F: Blake 2, Nic 2, Harry 2 Goals: Blake 2, Nic 1, Harry 1
Juniors
Sutho U15A Geckos 1 St George Dragons 2
Friday night at Kyeemagh for the top of the table clash. With a narrow loss and a nil all draw in our previous games, in promised to be a tight match. With Elliot skiing and Sean suffering a saw mouth after some “teething issues”, we had just the 1 sub.
Focus was mixed in the change room, and this was evident in the early stages of the game, as we were a little loose in defence. We quickly fixed that and played quite strongly in a fast and evenly matched game. A couple of chances to each team in the first half, but 0-0 at half time.
Second half we took the lead through a nice finish from Chloe. Some interesting umpiring saw Saints awarded a stroke because of our lifted clearance kick from the keeper, much to the entire grounds bewilderment. Saints converted and were finishing the stronger. They scored again late off a corner, and held on to win.
The Geckos played very well, and in a really close game that could have gone either way were unlucky. The effort and focus areas were all executed, we just couldn’t clear our D well enough when it mattered. We did show marked improvement in our corner defence, which was pleasing, and James had his best game of the season in goals with some good saves.
Well done guys – We know we can get them in the finals!
Points – 3 Adrian, 2 Chloe, 1 Raina. Goal: Chloe.
Sutho U13A Geckos 3 St George 2
Pictures thanks to Rory Staples
St George had been playing well and came into the game with momentum, while the Geckos were coming off a draw against Glebe. And true to the script, St George started the game very well and were controlling the game for the first 10 minutes, readily forcing/pressuring turnovers by the Geckos and tackling superbly.
Even though St George had most of the ball, they could not get through the scrambling Geckos defence and solid goal-keeping by Fletcher.
After soaking up the early pressure from St George, the Geckos started passing the ball around and made it more frequently into the St George half.
And it wasn’t long before those training drills kicked in with Noah running the ball down and along the backline and slotted the ball past the St George keeper to bring up Sutho’s first goal.
However, within minutes St George had struck back with a terrific shot from the top of the circle to just inside the right post. It remained 1-1 until a couple of minutes before half-time when the Geckos briefly dominated the play, scoring 2 goals. J
ett managed to take the ball off St George and after beating a few tacklers, slotted a goal in from the top of the circle to make it 2-1. This was then followed just before half time with Noah sending a long ball through to Lachlan and he was able to beat the keeper to score our third goal. That made it 3-1 at half-time.
Both teams came out firing at the start of the second half creating opportunities at each end, with both earning short corners.
Byron managed an amazing run-out and tackle on the St George short corner to ensure no shot at goal. Similarly, the Geckos couldn’t convert our short corner, but there was some great lead up work from Matty, Tomas and Lachlan to earn the short corner.
After the initial flurry of short corners, St George controlled the play for most of the second half with the Geckos pinned down in our half – just too many turnovers (and more great tackling by St George). But the Geckos defence held strong, notwithstanding a bit of a mixup with an injured player in the circle that led to a late penalty stroke being awarded to St George that they converted.
St George had played well and probably at least deserved a draw, but the fighting spirit of the Geckos earned them the win.
Best and fairest: Fletcher King 2 pts; Bree Richardson 2; Thomas Bryden 2 pts.
Scorers: Noah, Jett and Lachlan.
Sutho U13B Thorny Devils 2 UNSW 1
Pictures thanks to Matt Morris
Another win for the Thorny Devils today as we went into the home stretch of the hockey season. With only three more games until finals, things are shaping up nicely.
The opening part of the game found a very bunched up and easily rattled UNSW, and there were all indications of a very dominant position from Sutho. But this mood changed throughout the first half, with UNSW controlling and passing the ball extremely well as they handled everything that we threw at them.
Our building teamwork was challenged today as UNSW built in confidence throughout the match, and although there were many goal opportunities, the opposition did well to keep the score so low.
There was some nice work in defence today from Sutho, notably Nathaniel, who did his job well whenever put under pressure, and his confidence has grown in this important role.
Jana had another extremely athletic game, covering what seemed to be half of the entire field at times to shut out the oncoming attacks on our goal.
Amelia had another solid game sticking well to her field position and getting her fair share of action.
It was good to have Ethan back in the hunt for goals today; he was unlucky not to bag a few.
A standout performance from Josh today, as he does everything that is asked of him, and radiates his positive and willing attitude, on and off the field.
With today’s win we have put another firm and positive step forward in the points chase. With this consistency we will hopefully end the season strongly placed in the top 4, and real contenders in the finals.
Go Sutho!!
Best and fairest: 3 pts Jana Dimitrovska, 2 Joshua Penrose and 1 Owen Laycock. Goals: Jack Treharne 1, Mackenzie Shaw 1.
Sutho Under 13B Blue Tongues 1 Glebe Hornets 0
Today’s game was an interesting one because our opposition only had 7 players.
This meant they “stacked” their defensive line, making it challenging to score goals.
The team had many opportunities to score but only managed to put one goal in the net (thanks to Finn). We had some good passing and plays down the sides of the ground today.
Best and fairest: 3 pts Finn Wille, 2 pts: Lile Roche, 1 pts: Liv Coxsedge. Scorer:Finn Wille.
Sutho U11A Geckos 2 St George 1
As the finals loom ever closer, the competition is heating up.
St George brought their “A” game on Saturday, and even though they were playing 1 player short, they certainly proved that they’ll be a force to contend with should we meet them in the finals.
The Geckos pulled it together, and via some fantastic structural build up from our defenders through to our strikers, Kai Fisher was able execute the only 2 goals of the game.
St George battled hard and had plenty of shots on goal, which is an element that we can work on.
Josh saved a cracker right on the buzzer, and our defenders locked the game down by extinguishing an after-the-whistle short corner to keep the opposition to one goal.
It’s great to see how the team’s effort at training is paying off in all aspects of the game. Well done team!
Players Player: Kai – 3, Josh – 2, Rhys – 1.
Sutho U11B Bearded Dragons 1 St George Randwick 0
The Bearded Dragons were looking to keep a firm grip on the top of the ladder today against a St George Randwick side who were determined to make a late run for 4th position.
The game was very evenly matched and the Bearded Dragons seemingly forgot most of what they have been training hard at all season – sticking to positions, making space, getting the ball out wide and playing the back post. However, going into half time at nil all, a few oranges and a good pep talk from the coaches saw the Bearded Dragons begin to turn their game around.
They began working the ball up the field into the D more and had a number of unsuccessful attempts at goal with some good goal keeping by the SGR goalie.
Finally, with 8 minutes to go Rohan scored the winning goal in spectacular diving fashion.
SGR made a few final attempts to even the scoreline but Riley, returning from a fractured wrist, was in great form in the goals and kept the score to a close 1 nil. Welcome back Riley!
Though they had a tougher day than usual the Bearded Dragons showed true grit and determination to win a game that could have gone either way, giving them a glimpse of what finals hockey will look like.
Best and fairest: 3pts Riley de Soza, 2pts Emily Carey, 1 pt Dominic Lenzo. Scorer: Rohan.
