Volleyball
4 August, 2025
Finals beckon for Phantoms' premier men
Seven Phantoms teams commenced the season and only one will play finals following the final round of the Victorian Volleyball League season.
Matthew Berry’s premier one men’s team will play finals for the third season in succession after scoring wins against Dandenong and old foes Eastside Hawks in their final round.
In his first season as coach, Berry got his full squad together for the first time on Saturday and this was reflected in the results.
“It was good to have everyone in the room at the same time, and this enabled me to manage the players between the two games,to ensure we were at full strength for the Eastside Hawks game, which was important to win," Berry said.
“Tom Hermans played the libero role against Dandenong which gave Josh Gordon an opportunity to put all his efforts into the Eastside Hawks game, and this showed in the end as Josh was brilliant.”
Berry said he would give his squad a rest next weekend before bringing everyone together on the Tuesday before their cut-throat elimination final against Yarra.
“To finish the season in fifth spot on the ladder with nine wins is a great result for the group and has given them great confidence going into the finals," he said.
The same could not be said for Jack Hannan’s premier two men who couldn’t get the two wins needed to jump into finals contention.
Coach Zac Hermans said losses to Renegades and Eastside Hawks left the team outside the top six with seven wins and eight losses.
“The hardest part about all that is the team has played more sets (64) than the rest of the competition, underlying just how tough and tight the competition is.
“The team was more than competitive but lost too many five-setters, which didn’t help.”
Tyler Snowden’s state league one men’s team, after winning a bronze medal last year, will have to watch on this season after finishing seventh with eight wins and eight losses.
In a division with 23 teams split into two pools, to give an indication of how unlucky the team was, the team that finished seventh in the opposite pool had only six wins.
“That was hard to take,” Snowden said.
A young state league men’s two team featuring Volleyball Horsham’s Noah Werry and Oscar Jackman finished the season with five wins in 11th position on their ladder.
For the women’s teams it was a case of so close yet so far for Laelah Robertson’s premier two team.
Starting the season in a blaze of glory winning seven of their first eight games, the team was looking good to make finals.
Robertson said a late season drop-off which was not helped by player unavailability and injury saw the team finish ninth.
“We were still a chance last week as we needed to beat Renegades and Eastside Hawks but we just couldn’t get over the line, with injuries mid-game cruelling our charge," she said.
“When you lose your two passhitters and only have two juniors on the bench it makes it hard and, despite giving it are real crack, we lost to Eastside in five sets, ending our season.”
For Tamikah Dockrill’s premier one women’s team it was a season to forget, winning only five games.
“After making finals last season there was a degree of optimism within the group to repeat that effort this season but we couldn’t get going at all during the year and finished eighth,” Dockrill said.
Overall, 11 Volleyball Horsham members played state league this season and all played significant roles for their teams.
Learnings and experience they gained by playing in the best competition in the country, are being brought back to the association and passed on to the next generation – something you can’t put a price on, Volleyball Horsham says.