Hockey
22 July, 2025
First finals spots locked in
With ten rounds of the Wimmera hockey season now complete, three teams in each of the Open and Women’s competitions and two in the Under-16s have confirmed they will play finals, but there is still plenty to play for in the remaining five rounds.
This week, the action at Yanac yielded several predictable results, but also a couple that will keep the intrigue surrounding the make-up of the finals alive for a little longer.
Three Open teams are still jostling to claim second place on their ladder, and the fifth-place teams in the other two divisions remain firmly in the mix to challenge for a spot in their top fours in time for the finals.
The Open ladder remained unchanged from the previous round, although the Kaniva Cobras enhanced their chances of claiming a top-two finish with a win over the Horsham Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes started the game strongly, earning the only penalty corner in the first quarter within a minute of the start of play, and although Kaniva defended this successfully, Horsham claimed the lead by quarter time after Paul Mackereth scored a field goal less than a minute before the break.
Kaniva replied quickly, with Josh Bedford scoring from field play five minutes into the next quarter, and despite earning another penalty corner each before half time, they went into the long break with scores tied at one all.
The Cobras drew ahead when Lachie Mills converted a penalty corner, and they sealed the result with a Nathaniel Dickinson field goal in the last ten seconds of the game.
The other Open match also started with a very even first quarter, despite being a clash between first and fifth on the ladder, with both teams having a few well-defended attacking breaks, but neither was on the scoreboard by quarter time.
The first goal came from a penalty corner less than a minute after play resumed, off the stick of Brad Alexander, but it took another forty minutes of intense hockey before Kim Croot scored again for the Tigers from field play halfway through the last quarter to establish the final margin of two goals.
Although the Rangers did not earn their first win of the season, they regularly challenged the Tigers’ defence and made them work hard when in attack.
With these results, the Tigers remain on top of the ladder, a comfortable six points clear ahead of the Warrack Hoops, who had the bye this week, but the Cobras have moved to just four points further back and are in a position to seriously challenge the Hoops for the second chance in the finals.
Although the Hurricanes are relatively safe in fourth place, twelve points ahead of the fifth-placed Rangers, they are now six points behind the Cobras, which will be a monumental task for them to make up in the next five weeks, but they will still want to find some improved form if they are to make a serious challenge in the finals.
The Rangers are practically out of the race for the finals, but they continue to push all the teams above them, and a win or two in the closing rounds of the season would not be considered an upset.
WOMEN
There were no changes on the Women’s ladder either, with the higher-ranked team in each match recording victories, but there were still some interesting points to come out of the round.
The closest game saw the undefeated Yanac work hard to overcome the Nhill Thunderbirds by two goals.
Yanac dominated the stats for the game, earning sixteen penalty corners, but some very strong ‘Birds’ defence kept them in the game.
With the large number of attacking moves Yanac was able to create, it was only a matter of time before they breached the Nhill defence, and this came late in the first quarter with a goal by Caitlyn Alexander, and soon after halftime from Makayla Mackley's stick.
While they didn’t inflict Yanac’s first defeat of the season, the ‘Birds earned a lot of respect and self-confidence from this game and showed they can challenge the dominant top three teams and could be a significant influence as the finals approach.
The other games had more one-sided results.
In another game that started very evenly, the Horsham Jets matched Kaniva for the first quarter, but a burst of six goals in the second quarter saw Kaniva return to some of their best form after they struggled to overcome Warracknabeal in the previous round.
Lisa Stimson led the scoring with three goals, ahead of five teammates who scored on each to make up the eight-goal scoreline.
This keeps Kaniva within reach of challenging the Dimboola Roos for second place on the ladder, but with the Jets missing the points and the hit they took to their goal difference, their task of reclaiming fourth place on the ladder has become a little more difficult.
A good win over Warracknabeal saw the Dimboola Roos improve their goal difference, which could be significant towards the end of the season as they strive to hold second place.
They are currently four points ahead of Kaniva, but if they were to falter and Kaniva were to make up this deficit, the Roos’ superior goal difference would be worth another win on the ladder, which should see them stay ahead.
Eight goals by Jennie Hauselberger and three by Ellie Baldock were the leading contributions to the Roos’ score.
Under 16's
The significant movements from this round were on the Under 16 ladder.
The Yanac Warriors suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of their closest rival, the Nhill Leopards.
With no scoring before three-quarter time, this game was shaping up as a titanic struggle between the two dominant teams in this division, but after the Leopards scored the first goal two minutes into the last period of play, they dominated the rest of the play, finishing with four goals.
The Leopards have now overtaken the Warriors for top place on the ladder with a superior goal difference, despite both teams now having the same number of points.
Which of these two teams will finish the regular season at the top of the ladder may not be decided until they play each other again in the last round.
The Warrack Revengers and Dimboola Kangaroos played out a three-all draw, which keeps the Warracknabeal team in third place, but the two points for this result were not enough to keep the Kangaroos in the top four after the Kaniva Raiders won a tight encounter with the Horsham Bombers.
The Raiders and Kangaroos are now tied on points on the ladder, with the Raiders having a better goal difference by just one goal, which moves them up to fourth after this round, while the Kangaroos drop to fifth.
With five rounds to go, there are still plenty of opportunities for either of these teams to stake their claim for a place in the finals.
With their loss, the Bombers’ chances of making the finals are fading, now needing to rely not only on an improvement in their own form, but a dramatic slide from a team above them if they are to extend their season beyond round fifteen.
