The first round of The Hockey Show Cup has been drawn and thrown up some exciting fixtures! The Cup is, of course, a knockout competition with the winners progressing over four weekends to the final where they will be competing for $500 cash for their club.
WOMEN’S CUP
Southern United v Yarra Valley
Altona v Monash Uni
Greensborough v Kew
Powerhouse/StKilda v Waverley
Doncaster v Footscray
MCC v Camberwell
TEM v Mentone
Essendon Ladies v Hawthorn
MEN’S CUP
MCC v Hawthorn
Doncaster v Waverley
Southern United v Altona
Yarra Valley v Kew
Essendon v Camberwell
Monash Uni v Greensborough
MUHC v MHSOB
Brunswick v TEM
Southern United has received one of the best draws with both of their teams playing at home against oppositions they will fancy themselves against. The men troubled Altona last year and would love to prove that they still have what it takes to be competitive with the SL1 sides despite their relegation. And for the Altona men, it will be a great hit-out for debutante coach Darren Duff who has taken over the reins at the club from Ross Harper.
At the other end of the scale it’s difficult to admire Monash Uni’s draw with their women playing the highly-fancied Altona girls away. . . while their men have an even tougher task against the reigning premiers, Greensborough. Even with many of the Greensborough players absent on Viking duties in Canberra it’s going to be tough to tip against the young guns of Burra at the Burra.
Doncaster have managed to see both of their teams playing at home – the women will fancy themselves against Footscray while the men will have their hands full against Waverley. But with an absentee list boasting, Smith, Brooks & Ford for this match it’s going to be a great test for the youth at these clubs – and a particularly challenging start for Waverley stalwart, Brett Thompson taking over from the remarkably successful Richard Nally as coach of the Panthers. This fixture will be the one to watch.
MCC have tickets to the coaching merry-go-round with Dan Coulson accepting his first senior role with the women after the sensationally controversial departure of incumbent coach, Graeme Chittenden. . . and the men appointing ace umpire Jarrod Lester after Gerry Anastasio chose not to continue at the club. The first assignments for these coaches will not be straightforward with the women playing the perennially successful Camberwell and the men tackling last year’s grand finalists, Hawthorn.
But if there’s one new coach breathing a sigh of relief it will be TEMs’ Phil Merriman – easily the youngest SL1 appointment in decades – with the TEMs men drawing Brunswick. But don’t underestimate the Wickers. . . coach Paul Richards would think himself desperately unlucky not to have seen his team in the 2007 finals and this club is looking to take another step forward in 2008 with the laying of a brand new ground.
The tastiest women’s fixture will see Hawthorn travel out to Essendon early on Saturday afternoon. It’s been a little while since either of these clubs tasted success but one would suggest they will be thereabouts in September.
Meanwhile, in the men’s draw – with MUHC v MHSOB and Yarra Valley v Kew – we are guaranteed to see two 2007 SL2 outfits progress to the final eight which should see tremendous challenges ahead for these clubs before Easter.
Make sure you get down to support your club for their first hit-out of the season in The Hockey Show Cup and help cheer them on to the first piece of silverware for the season!
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March 4th, 2008 at 11:36 am
wow thats some major coaching changes across the board. Lester to coach MCC is quite surprising. What happened with Chittenden departing MCC Womens? Good luck to Dan taking on the job, is his gf still playing there? Sure that will be an added little challenge in managing the missus.
What odds would anyone give Monash Uni of rolling Burra? Any chance we could have the game settled via boat race/das boot?
March 4th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
TEM will be sighing with fear rather than relief. The score shouldn’t be a problem (under-strength Bombers beat a full-strength Brunswick 4:2 in Summer GF) but TEM might well end up with a few key players in hospital (al a MHSOB, Monash, Geelong etc). Three psycho thugs are too many to keep track of, especially when losing. “Desperately unlucky” should read “utterly embarrassed by his team’s childish ill-discipline and pointless stupidity”.
Question: Was Richard Nally “remarkably successful”, or did he achieve the bare minimum with the players he’s had?
With Lester and Coulson in charge we can all look forward to MCC winning yellow cards galore in 2008, probably from the coaches themselves.
As for the final two SL2 matches, I know you’re trying to add interest to every game, but MUHC shoppers will have no trouble outscoring MHSOB despite ladder positions, while Kew is in a different league from Yarra, literally. Monash and Yarra should sleep in to avoid excessive blushes; unless Paul Roos is guest-coaching their opposition.
Some of the SL1 matches do look interesting, though. Anyone know more details of Ins & Outs? And can someone please post details of times and venues soon?
March 4th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Interesting points there Skeptic. Some of them sound pretty reasonable. However the beauty of something like this competition is that it provides an opportunity for teams like Monash, Brunswick and Yarra to play against sides they would generally never get the chance to and who knows what could happen at this early point. A lowly rated side could play out of their skin against a highly rated side who has a bad day and anything could happen.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I’m struggling to work out who’s home and who’s away. At first I thought it was first-named team was home, but then Burra seem to be hosting Monash in the men’s comp. Can anyone enlighten me?
March 5th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Yup,
Monash’s ground wont be ready so therefore they are forced to play it as an away fixture even though they drew it as a home fixture.
I think Brunswick are in the same boat.
Cheers,
Bartos.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
any Brunswick team that has me in it is certainly not full strength…..and its been at least 2 or 3 games since someone was injured playing against us.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Didn’t know you could win yellow cards???? Good luck to all the new coaches I am sure they will all enjoy the fun and games State League Hockey can throw at you. Also I believe TEM only beat Brunswick on penalty strokes…a little bit of a shock??? Obviously TEM without a german, 3 spaniards, a aussie goalie and an Aust u/21 players and they come back to earth???