WA Over 35's - 2005 Match Reports

Wed 21.9.05 
After the early morning stumble and last minute arrivals (courtesy of a disorganised taxi service) we all managed to find a seat on the plane and hit the skies for Melbourne.  
Spiller lived up to her name and managed a very credible performance, including coffee and water in her pre-championship warm up.  
The rest of us managed to chatter our way across the nation, with Vicki giving a hint of her abilities for the weeks to come…. sleeping nearly all the way.

Getting off the plane and sorting luggage was reasonably easy, chucking it in a truck even more so, driving 2 busses through Melbourne marginally harder, but as long as we kept the truck in sight, all was fine.  
Full marks to Janet and Frockey for being first shift (we have 6 bus drivers, so the roster system was working well for us). We settled into the apartments, with the team split across 2 floors, but all within shouting distance – so no drama there. 
Coles – the nearest supermarket – was found to be further away than the 10-15 minute walk suggested by our long legged fast walking hotel manager, but supplies were soon found to tide us over the two weeks. 
The first night we went for a wander as a team to find somewhere that could cope with 15 of us at short notice and found a nice little Thai restaurant that didn’t know what hit it. We took two tables and studied the menu.  
Nico’s table managed to order, eat, pay, leave, go get ice-creams a block away, eat them and wander back to the restaurant before the other lot finished their main meal!  
We also managed to find the nearest bottle shop – handy knowledge for the after game cool down that is so essential at our age.

Thurs 22.9.05 A nice early start through peak hour traffic to our first session on the Melbourne turf.  
Full marks to Foz and Allison, both former residents of Melbourne, who navigated an optimal path through the traffic and had us at training before any of the other teams.  
The facilities at the stadium seemed pretty good – having a hockey shop there was a handy idea.  
The bar is a fraction of the size we’re used to, but the kiosk seemed reasonably well stocked, so no danger of dying of hunger or thirst while out there, although bankruptcy could be an option.  
Proximity of the netball courts was obviously a concern and could prove to have a detrimental effect in the games to come. 
However, once on the turf, we hit a few other difficulties.  
For some reason both fields are as slippery as (insert own description of an extremely slippery thing here – mine’s too rude for public viewing!).  
A few spills and slides necessitated the purchase of new turf shoes for a couple of players, although Rex didn’t seem to mind the extra impetus – much to Gibo’s concern (“Wait! Glenys has fallen down! What’s wrong?” will go down in history).  
All up, not a bad session, but another needed before we play. Luckily, Allison came to the rescue again with a few local contacts and the ball set in motion for another session. 
Back to the apartments for the afternoon and a team meeting. Janet made sure everyone knew we’re here to play hockey, and not to overdo it with too much walking (shops, sightseeing, etc). All the admin stuff out of the way, there was a bit of free time before heading out to the stadium again for the opening ceremony.  
WA was definitely the most vocal contingent, with our players and officials treating other states to some of our vast repertoire of choral encouragements (and directives).

Fri 23.9.05 We managed to score a bye for day 1, so used the morning to visit the Powerhouse turf for some solid training.  
When let off her leash, Rex coined the term Princess for the namby pamby shots she was receiving, so earned herself the title “Princess Rex” for the duration of the championships.  
It was a great session for everyone, except Gibo, who managed to have her new stick break in half.  
Luckily quite a few people had spares and a near match was found by Quinty and the day saved (although Gibo was seen later getting another under warranty – a spare for the spare?) 
Later in the afternoon we fronted up at the stadium to watch a few of the opposition games.  
Janet set the team up in groups, and set them tasks to record set plays, dangerous players and standard moves that the teams were using.  
Dinner at the stadium – lasagna from the kiosk was not as good as Mamma makes, but filled the gap – watch the next game, then home again.

WA vs QLD - Saturday, September 24, 2005

Result: WA 1 - QLD 1

For some reason, Melbourne seemed rather empty today – there was a feeling of expectation, something significant was going to happen today. Of course! The O35’s were playing their first game, and everyone was keen to see what we did! Someone else muttered something about “AFL” “Eagles” and “Grand Final today” so there may have been another reason….. Half the team trooped out to a Flemington hotel to see what all the hype was about while the other half stayed in the apartments settling nerves by watching 44 grown men kicking a ball around a big field in front of a large audience. 

With all the traffic around, we made sure we got to the stadium with plenty of time to spare.  
As the darkness fell, we worked out that the lighting of the two turf fields wasn’t the world’s brightest, but went out to do our best anyway.  
The team worked well together and was just finding our feet, when Queensland scored in the 15th minute from a penalty corner.  
Rather rude of them, given that we’d traveled so far, but they got under our guard and slipped it in.  
Janet kept the changes flowing in the second half, and the team gave Queensland a lot of headaches.  
Put most of these down to some good observations from the day before, when we’d worked out quite a few of their plays and had some good ideas on how to shut them down.  
Allison got a bad deal when poor light stopped her seeing the umpires signal clearly, and she copped a yellow card for not backing off from a free hit to the opposition (to be fair, everyone thought it was Allison’s free!). 

The team rallied and won a penalty corner straight away, and Foz stepped in to the rescue and scored a goal a minute later, giving us a 1-all draw for our first game.  
Allison now has a reputation as the quickest virgin to get carded in a championship, which adds to the reps our team is slowly accumulating…..

WA vs VIC - Sunday, September 25, 2005

Result: WA 0 - VIC 3

The late Kate Main managed to make a showing today – work having kept her back in WA and off the field until today. 
She came in off the red eye special, to find notes on the floor and door telling her (quite politely!) where to go.  
Apparently Tammy rolled over and said hello, but denies all knowledge… 

Out for a Sunday drive and thought we’d visit the stadium.  
Victoria had the same idea, so we thought we’d give them a go on the field and see what they could do.  
Unfortunately, they took us up literally and scored 3 in the first half, all from penalty corners.  
They couldn’t beat us on the field and we definitely had control of most of the play.  
We kept them scoreless in the second half, but just couldn’t beat their keeper. 

Final score was 3-0 to Victoria, who later went on to take out the gold medal in our grade. 

Our girls played some good honest hockey, and there was great interaction between the players, showing lots of potential for us to build on.

Dinner at one of the many local pubs saw us stock up on some carbs for tomorrow.  
A few of the locals proved to be reasonably friendly, although somewhat dense (constant mutterings about the eagle has fallen seemed to go over our heads). 

WA vs NT - Monday, September 26, 2005

Result: WA 5 - NT 0

We hit the stadium all fired up from yesterdays’ game, determined to win and show that we could play well. 

The Northern Territory was the unlucky recipient of our drive, as we went out to prove ourselves.  
A penalty corner 16 minutes into the game saw Quinty put her name on the score board (although the tech bench put the scorer down as player number 2 – interesting call when neither team out there actually had a player with number 2!).  
The rest of the half was scoreless as we concentrated on strong defensive play and building up the pressure on the NT back line. 

Janet’s half time talk revved us into being more aggressive, so we went out after the break to make our presence felt.  
A penalty corner two minutes into the half saw Franny score, with Joycie setting up a great play a minute later for Foz to tuck another one in.  
Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, Foz got another goal in 7 minutes later.  
Another penalty corner 14 minutes into the half saw Franny’s name on the board again, and we were 5-0 up at the end of the game.  
Some great team play, good passing of the ball and playing to our strengths saw us demonstrate some excellent hockey.

Off to the championship dinner to celebrate! Gibo and Joycie set themselves as team fashion plates, demonstrating hot pink fluffy leg warmers had not gone out of style. 
Allison was the team’s dancing queen, showing some very hot moves on the dance floor (now if the team copied those on the field, we’d be laughing!).  
Inspector Rex could’ve booked Spiller for false advertising – that’s not the prescribed use of balloons!  
Franny got all the virgins up on a chair demonstrating their abilities until some spoil-sport security guard took away our chair.  
The food was good as was the music, and it would be safe to say that a good time was had by all.  
Tam bravely skippered the bus home, after which the party hards tripped off to the casino for some extra sight seeing.  
Kate Main, who we nicknamed Nanna, stayed up to teach us a few drinking games – enough to say, be careful playing with people who know you well if you’re playing “Never, Never.” 

Tuesday 27th was a rest day. 
Wise to have a rest day after the big night before!  
While the party-hards were tucking into bed, the go-getters were going and getting.  
The “S” word was the order of the day, and people split into groups to either sleep it off, sight see or go shopping.  
Gibo is the Queen of shopping and demonstrated her abilities to a startled Rabbit, Nico, Rob, Joycie, Tam and Kate.  
We even picked up a couple of O40’s to show them the ropes!  
A traipse through the Vic Markets saw us stock up pretty well for our “secret friends” gifts as well as mandatory presents for the folk back home.  
Those who had family and friends in Melbourne took off to renew bonds and the rest of us took it nice and easy after our “S” word-ing. The conveniently placed Subway restaurant at the bottom of the apartments has seen quite an increase in business during our stay.  
I must admit, it was nice to wake up to the aroma of bread baking wafting up the stairwell!

WA vs TAS - Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Result: WA 0 - TAS 3

Back to the grind with an early game against Tasmania. Tassie scored in the first 5 minutes from a penalty stroke that we thought was awarded somewhat dubiously, which seemed to put our team on the back foot.  
Some strong defensive play kept Tasmania away from our goal for the rest of the half. 
Great passages of play through the midfield and great leading by the wings saw the ball spend most of it’s time around the Tassie 25 but just couldn’t make it through to the net. 

In the second half, Tasmania scored twice more from penalty corners – at 12 and 21 minutes into the half.  
We again had the majority of play but were unable to convert it into goals, despite the pressure we put on their defenders.  
Tas went on to play Victoria for the finals, and despite our tumultuous barracking for them, were unable to beat Victoria for the gold medal.

To turn the day into something more promising, we returned an earlier favour of the O55’s, who had invited the O35’s to dinner last year.  
This year it was our turn to provide for our friends, and we put on a home cooked pasta night, thanks to the culinary abilities of several of our players (anyone who fancies that carbonara recipe should see Janet!).  
The O55’s were greeted at the door with a yellow rose tied in black and gold ribbon, and invited to take a seat. 
For some reason, they insisted on walking around the dinner table a few times while singing a nursery rhyme, before each of the O55’s presented their buddies in O35’s with a buddy bear!  
Much appreciated by the O35’s, who then treated the visitors to entertainment in the form of “FOZZ LIVE” - and idea that had been picked up by Rove McManus and showed on national television to much success.  
The topical nature of the entertainment meant that the O55’s enjoyed many giggles at the expense of themselves, and a great time was had by all.

WA vs NSW - Thursday, September 29, 2005

Result: WA 1 - NSW 4

The stadium beckoned yet again and we traipsed out to face NSW.  
This was our unknown quantity, having not actually been able to see them play before we faced them.  
They came out strongly, and had some good linking field play that resulted in them scoring a field goal 10 minutes into the first half.  
We correspondingly upped our defensive play and kept them away from our 25 for the rest of the half.  
Some strong work by our defenders linking through the midfield saw the ball make it’s way to the forwards a few times, but NSW weren’t letting us through. 

In the second half, NSW scored a field goal 6 minutes into the half, then converted a penalty corner 2 minutes later. 
Understandably shocked, we fought back and consistently drove the ball at their defenders until we wore them down.  
Allison set up a text-book pass in the D, allowing Quinty to score a goal for us with 9 minutes to go.  
NSW took this personally and replied with another goal in the final minute. 

Some great field play by our players, but the opportunities just weren’t presented for us to take advantage of.  
We’re hungry for the win, so watch out tomorrow!

WA vs ACT - Friday, September 30, 2005

Result: WA 3 - ACT 0

Another mid morning jaunt out to the stadium, with some interesting detours due to roadworks in progress. 

Robby hung up the goody two shoes and came out with a fair dollop of fire, converting a penalty corner into a goal at the 8-minute mark.  
This encouraged us so much that we showed them some of our excellent skills: holding the ball, using back passes and the width of the field to establish our control of the game.  
Kate Main felt she wanted to make her presence felt, so stepped in to convert another short corner 3 minutes before half time, giving us a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break. 

Keeping control of the game after the break, we again moved the ball around to our advantage.  
Some great passes out of defence and through the midfield, forwards leading left, right and centre – we were dominating!  
Spiller knocked in a field goal with 6 minutes to go, which Janet promptly rewarded with a spell on the bench.  
Janet let her back on with 3 minutes to go, but no further score resulted. 

A good win for us, showing much better ball control and the growing confidence the team has in each player.  
Some great moves on the field – everything has finally clicked into place, Janet’s instructions are making sense and everyone is working well together – now if only we had a few more days!

Back to the apartments and final runarounds to organise our “secret friends” gifts for presentations tonight.  
The whole WA contingent met up at Pristkars, a little café a real 10 minute walk from the apartments (unlike Coles – see day one!).  
We made a couple of presentations – Janet awarding the Catherine Bayens Trophy (for team-manship on and off the field) to Sue Foster, known as Foz.  
Coleen Dayman scored a thank you for all her work in getting us organised, sorting out uniforms and mentoring the managers so that we all held together.  
Then the O35’s and O55’s put on a couple of skits – suffice to say I don’t think anyone will look at Sandra or Sam Newman in the same way ever again!  
Then back to Robby’s room for the “secret friends” gifts, and presentations to our bus drivers, Janet and Nico for all their hard work.  
Not too early a night, but a good, positive one that kept the spirits lifted (in more ways than one!)

WA vs ACT playoff for 5th and 6th - Saturday, October 1, 2005

Result: WA 3 - ACT 1

The play off for 5th and 6th was not where we’d planned to end our championship, but it was a game that we had to win to keep our honour.  
Having played ACT the day before, we had a good understanding of their abilities and moves, yet were not so certain of ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security.  
Foz decided she liked the sound of the ball going into the backboards, so ran herself into position and scored a field goal 13 minutes into the first half.  
Again, strong defensive play kept ACT out of our 25 as we showed our skills in maneuvering the ball around the field.  
Janet told us at the half time break that 1-0 up just wasn’t enough.  
So Robby popped up like a good captain and converted a penalty corner 8 minutes into the half to give us the 2-0 scoreline Janet wanted.  
Unfortunately the ACT didn’t realise this so 10 minutes later converted a penalty corner of their own, to leave us with a 2-1 lead.  
Another penalty corner seemed to be our best answer, so after working the ball around the field, we finally got one and left Quinty to score with 11 minutes to go.  
Again, our defenders rose to the challenge and shut down all of the ACT’s advances, giving us a final score of 3-1 and fifth place in the championships.

We scooted back to the apartments to shower and change, and returned to watch the finals in our grade, where Victoria took out Tasmania (much to our disappointment).  
The closing ceremony had all teams on the turf to the accompaniment of a skirling piper.  
We had treated the other states to a few of our rousing WA tunes beforehand, and much preferred our renditions of Waltzing Matilda (apologies to the original lyricist for the few barely noticeable changes we made…). 
Our voices were lifted again to congratulate our players selected for Australian representation in Korea and the trans-Tasman events next year.  
Extra special congratulations to Rex, Robby, Fran, Quinty and Vickster for getting berths – shadow or otherwise – in these teams.  
Back to the apartments to don the civvies and we hit the St Kilda café strip for our final night out.  
A nice little café managed to fit us all in and we celebrated the hockey equivalent of the Last Supper.  
Not too late as most of us still had a bit of packing to do, and a few final things to empty from the fridge…. which may have been contributing factors to the large numbers of folk wearing sunglasses the following morning!

Sun 2.10.05. Another early start, but sadly, our last. The unbelievably small lift at the apartments worked overtime, ferrying luggage to the ground floor as we prepared our exodus.  
Baggage littered the pavement as we waited for our friendly truck to reappear and cart the luggage away.  
It duly arrived, and baggage was tossed capably by all hands, until the truck was filled.  
Waving goodbye to the few who were staying on for some extra “s” word-ing, we piled into the busses for the last time and hit the road to the airport.  
A last minute stopover to refuel (and pick up some breakfast) and we were at the airport with plenty of time to spare…. Or so we thought. Qantas, in its infinite wisdom, had opened only one group check in desk and we were the third group to check in for our flight.  
This caused a few delays, as we were chatted by the unfriendly Jetstar man for standing in his space, and redirected to the special luggage section to have sticks and massage tables checked in separately from the rest of the luggage.  
Nico and Allison stayed behind to make sure everything got onto the plane, and managed to race pass 3 of our older veteran friends on their dash across the airport, to be 4th and 5th last onto the plane, respectively.  
The whole shenanigans had delayed the flight departure by about 30 minutes, but we still got to Perth on time.  
A couple of choruses en flight but the largely exhausted players tried to emulate Vickster’s amazing ability to conserve energy at any time by falling asleep.  
The final luggage struggle at Perth airport, plenty of hugs and promises to catch up, and more than one cry of “See you next year!” as players drove into the distance.  
While not with the successes we’d hoped, it was a great experience for everyone, and if we can keep it together for next year, who knows? We might be coming home from Darwin with the gold medals making us kilos overweight, like the O50s!