Twenty-eight matches have now been successfully completed in the inaugural pre-season Cup competition and now only two matches remain – the Mens’ and Womens’ finals.
And, as if in perfect symmetry, we find two of this decade’s most powerful clubs competing in the finals; Waverley and Greensborough.
Womens Final: Waverley v Greensborough
Mens Final: Waverley v Greensborough
But the road to the finals has not been smooth for either of these clubs. The Waverley Men featured in one of the best match-ups of the first round against a spirited and highly favoured Doncaster team on their turf and came away with a 4-2 win.
The Greensborough Men, on the other hand, completed the most lop-sided result of the tournament with a 12-1 drubbing of Monash Uni. But it was the SL2 Brunswick and Yarra Valley Men that came closest to knocking off their respective SL1 opposition teams with Yarra Valley pushing the newly-promoted Kew to strokes and Brunswick giving Phil Merriman’s TEMs charges an early scare with a 2-2 draw. TEMs also progressed to round two on penalty strokes.
But arguably, it was the SL2 Yarra Valley Women who have gained the most from this tournament as they defeated Southern United 2-1 away from home and then found themselves drawn against the 2007 SL1 premiers; Waverley. But the Yarra Valley girls were not daunted and took it right up to the Panthers in a brave 2-1 defeat. It was that win that saw the Waverley Women safely through to the semi-finals.
For Greensborough, the second round presented two vastly different results for their sides. The Greensborough Women accounted for an under-strength Altona side 9-0 (making their goal tally for the tournament 12-0) while the Men found themselves in early trouble being held by a resilient Altona 1-1. After the longest penalty stroke competition the tournament has seen, however, the Burra Men prevailed and set themselves up a home semi-final against MCC.
The Camberwell Men announced their intentions in this round also with a 10-0 thumping of MUHC and so the clash of the 80’s rivals was set up for the semi-final at Waverley.
This match was again decided in strokes with Waverley holding on for a 1-1 draw against the Wellers who could rightly feel unlucky in not progressing to the final in regular time. The Greensborough Men, however, barely got out of second gear with a 10-1 humiliation of MCC that left new coach Jarrod Lester scratching his head.
The Greensborough Women easily accounted for Doncaster 4-0 who had shocked MCC the week before by knocking out last year’s grand finalists in strokes. And the Waverley Women defeated TEMs whose best result for the tournament came against Essendon whom they knocked out with a tense 4-3 win.
And so we come to the finals and the two Greensborough teams look like the primary contenders to take the $1,000 prize money back to Yan Yean Rd. Amazingly, the Greensborough Women are yet to concede a goal in this tournament on the back of the 16 that they have scored. The Greensborough Men have scored 22 in two matches and survived a penalty-stroke scare against Altona.
The Waverley Men, however, will most likely be on their home turf and have easily been dealt the toughest draw of the tournament with fixtures against three SL1 clubs; Doncaster, TEM and Camberwell. But coach Brett Thompson has answered every question asked of his team in the absence of international superstars Travis Brooks and Luke Doerner and would fancy his chances against Jim Irvine’s Burra.
For the Waverley Women, they find themselves in the final without showing anything extraordinary with wins over StKilda/Powerhouse, Yarra Valley and TEMs. They have received a friendly draw thus far that will end with their greatest challenge against Greensborough if they’re to take home the $500 winner’s cheque.
It has all come down now to two matches, two clubs and two Cups proudly donated by Just Hockey.
The match details will hopefully be announced in the next couple of days but at this stage I would set aside Saturday afternoon to watch the Mens’ and Womens’ finals of The Hockey Show Cup at Waverley between Waverley and Greensborough. Good luck to both clubs!
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Have your say about The Hockey Show Cup. . . Would you like to see it back next year? Has the experience been beneficial for the competing clubs or has it hindered preparations? What would you do differently?
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April 2nd, 2008 at 11:21 am
I think its a great idea. Something that should’ve been done a long time ago by HV. Congrats guys on organizing it, h’m sure it will continue to improve with each year. People are talking about it, crowds are coming out who would’ve thought!
Adds a sense of professionalism and gives that fantastic opportunity for lesser teams to match it with the top teams.
super dooper.