The Sydney Uni Men’s 1st grade hockey team has had their best start-of-year result for many years, defeating a rejuvenated St George Randwick team 6-1 at Olympic Park last Saturday.
The team’s performance was worthy of the result as they crushed the opposition in the last 15 minutes of the game.
St George Randwick came into the season with high hopes after the introduction of a new coach and a number of new imports this year, including a family of three State and Australian reps from Illawarra.
In contrast Sydney Uni had a solid core of its players back from 2011, although several key players were absent. They included Pete Kelly, one of a handful of Australians invited to play in India in the inaugural World Series Hockey, and Chris Pelow.
Scott Heappey, Scott Laird and Alistair Johnston were all welcomed back, while debutants such as Sydney Uni scholarship holder Aaron Goninan, Marc Collie and new Director of Coaching, Scott Barker, all made solid first impressions.
The first half featured some very impressive and even hockey, with the two teams going into the sheds at 1-1
The feature of the second half was Sydney Uni’s ability to keep up the pace and pressure from the first half, which allowed them to exploit the occasional St George defensive weakness. Sydney Uni forwards were soon regularly playing 3-on-1 against the St George goalkeeper, and the goals followed. They almost flowed freely in the last 15 minutes due to Uni’s unrelenting speed and accuracy.
Next week the boys come up against Sutherland, who are last year’s premiers. It will be a tougher game, but Uni looks promising for that game and the rest of the season.
In the 2nds, Sydney Uni was defeated 4-3 by St George Randwick. They dominated most of the match, but were unable to convert their opportunities, while St George capitalised on more than half of their limited opportunities.
