With 3 rounds played so far, 2012 is shaping up to be a pretty good season for the Maguts. On the women’s side, both 1st grade and 4th grade remain undefeated, and 2nd grade have 2 wins and 1 loss. This coming weekend it will be a top of the table clash for the 1st grade girls against Gordon North Shore, so why not head out to Olympic Park at 10.30am on Sunday to watch what is sure to be a great game. Women’s 3rd grade are still searching for their first win, so they could also use some support on Sunday afternoon (playing at 1.30pm at Pennant Hills).
The men’s 1st and 2nd grade teams have had a mixed bag in their first 3 games, with 1 win, 1 loss and 1 draw leaving them both sitting in the middle of the ladder. Men’s 3rd grade is down on player numbers this year, so several players from the Bentstix club have been playing for us, and James Dean has also made a cameo appearance. So far they have 1 win and 2 losses for the season. Read on for the full match reports for all teams.
Women’s 1st Grade
Result: 3-2 win (1-0 down at halftime) against Ryde
Goals to Psycho, Busta and Target
UNSW are the best side we’ve played so far, but we played our best team hockey of the year to overpower them. Much, much better linking across the whole field; and hopefully a sign of the quality hockey we’ll be able to play going forward.
Woman of the Match: Bullet, Hannah and Suz
Women’s 2nd Grade
Result: 7-0 win against West Rugby
Goals to Rhian, Tarryn, Nicola, Steff, Amy, Sonia
Macquarie went out hard this week scoring a goal within the first minute of the game. And this set the scene for the entire match. West Rugby rarely made it into Macquarie’s defensive half as we pressed the ball in, made good passes and had plenty of shots on goal. By half time we had 5 goals on the board. The entire match was defined by a cohesive and energetic team. West Rugby was able to make a few runs into the circle but without success. Positive comments all ‘round.
Woman of the Match: everyone
Women’s 3rd Grade
Result: 1-4 loss to Briars.
Goal to Amanda Nabulski
With regular 3rd graders out, some committed 4th grade girls rose to the challenge to take on Briars. The game started well, defense was strong and game plays started to take shape, a solid entry into the circle from great 3 way passing including Jola, Ellie and Amanda who was able to finish with beating the keeper 1 on 1 to score our first goal of the season… (Hoorah) Hopefully soon some of our girls will grow a little more confidence and belief in themselves to hold onto the ball rather than emergency pass it into space. The back half grew tired and with little to no defensive substitutes, a few minor slips had occurred which allowed us to lose our grip on the game. But keeping that in mind, first half was our strongest by far and despite the first goal going to Briars, our reply with one of our own showed that we definitely have the potential for some great hockey ahead! Stars of the day included Jess Cherie, who totally owned the Centre Half role, great running by Natasha Homesy and Allison De Gruyter, supurb defense by Kate Plokstys and Nannette Lowe. Well done ladies!
Woman of the match: Jess Cherie
Women’s 4th Grade
Result: BYE/3-1 loss to friendly opposition Northern Districts
Our round 3 match against Gordon became a bye as Gordon left the competition, however we were reassigned a tough task, by playing Northern Districts who play in the division above us and also had a bye in their division. The changed time meant we only had 7 players available, a huge thank you to Emilia, Kirra, Sonia, Kat and Amanda W for coming from 2nds to play for us in the second half, and to Amanda B and Kate P for doubling up from 3rds. We did well to hold Northern Districts to 3-nil with only 7 players and no keeper, the highlight being a penalty stroke that Kate P kept out without any goalie gear. We won the second half 1-0 as our structure got better the longer the game went, Lisa continuing her great form by getting our goal, plus best and fairest honours along with Kate P. Although we lost we still get the bye points and remain undefeated for the season.
Men’s 1st Grade
Result: 1-1 draw v Manly
Goal: Iain Watt (penalty corner)
1′s were probably a tad lucky to come away with a draw. We took the lead early in the second half but Manly’s many waves of attack resulted in a deserved equaliser. Next week we may not bother with a right wing as we insisted for the 70 minutes on dribbling the ball to the left, then making ridiculous passes to dangerous positions infield where Manly pounced. Having said that, we cover defended well. In the second round if we can use our brains a lot more – and our reptillian instinct a lot less – we will beat Manly in both grades with style.
Players Player: Andrew (GK), Riley
Men’s 2nd Grade
Result: 2-2 draw v Manly
Goals: Dylan Lamprecht pc, Ian Jessup pc
A game we blew after leading 2-0. Andrew Maher made a terrific save of a penalty stroke early in the second half when we were up 1-0, but the second half was a litany of brain explosions from the back and midfield as we gave the ball away in dangerous positions and allowed Manly back into the game. We failed to protect the right post on a weak penalty corner flick, then failed to mark a fast lefthanded winger who equalised with six minutes left. The first and last 10 minutes of the match we were asleep, but for the rest of it we dominated and should have put away more goals. We really need to work on getting the ball from the inner line to the strikers.
Players Players: Andrew (GK), Elliot and James