Renea Cooke, centre, poses with teammates and her award. 84649_02 Picture: JOE MASTROIANNI
By ADEM SARICAOGLU
WERRIBEE Hockey Club celebrated its recent Fair Go Sport family day with thumping wins for both its senior teams.
Women’s player Renea Cooke was presented with a Community Sport and Recreation award for her role with the Fair Go Sport initiative, which promotes the participation of the gay and lesbian community in hockey, before taking part in the Tigers’ 6-2 win over Casey.
The men’s team then took care of Knox, winning 5-2.
Both teams currently play in Hockey Victoria’s state league three, but are looking to get promoted back up to state league two next season.
With three games remaining, men’s coach Russell Skoglund said the goal for his team is to move from third into second place on the ladder leading into September’s finals.
“From now until the finals we expect to win all those games and secure a top two spot,” Skoglund said.
“If we don’t finish at least second then we’ve probably under-achieved.”
The depth of the team has recently been tested with injuries to captain Ross Cowlishaw and defender Daniel Collins, but Skoglund says others around the team have since stepped up.
“Well I suppose they’re all playing well at the moment with that good mix of young and old,” Skoglund said.
“We’ve had a real even spread across the whole team, they’ve all been gelling well as a team and the balance of old and young has really helped.”
The Tigers sit 10 points behind first-placed Casey, who have been the benchmark of the competition all season, but Skoglund is confident the Tigers can knock them off.
“When we get it all together, I dare say we’re a better team than them,” he said.
Skoglund’s confidence has rubbed off on women’s coach Les McAlinden, who believes his side will make up their five-point deficit with Monash University on the ladder to finish in the top four.
“I reckon we’re there,” McAlinden declared.
“I don’t want to be too cocky yet, but we should get there.
“The top four gets automatically promoted to state league two, and we should do that because we have all winnable games left for the year.
“There’s not much more we can do at this moment, so we just need to turn up every week focused and ready to go.”
Catherine Gladman, Victoria Pell, Brittany McIntyre and Chloe Pickersgill, who together have combined for 13 goals this season, have all been the Tigers’ standout performers.
“A lot of those girls have all stood up and earned their spots right from preseason training onwards, and a lot of them I expect will go on to bigger and better things in the sport,” McAlinden said.
