Sam Huxtable was part of the Werribee side which booked its place in Sunday’s State League Three hockey grand final. 64834_06 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By LIAM TWOMEY
AS the Werribee Hockey Club prepares to play off in a grand final this weekend for the Hockey Victoria State League Three premiership, coach Ross Cowlishaw can remember the moment which turned his side’s season around.
After a promising start to the year, Werribee had drawn three matches in a row and then suffered a 4-0 loss at the hands of La Trobe.
Cowlishaw said he encouraged his team to get back to basics.
“After that loss to La Trobe we sort of sat down and reassessed and said let’s start putting some good games together,” he said.
“I think from there we strung together about six or seven wins on the trot. That was quite good.
“It was really just re-focusing and going back to basics and making sure we were doing those basics right. We just wanted to put in a few more structures to make sure we all knew where we were running to.”
The turnaround in form carried Werribee all the way to the semi-finals where they took on top of the table Casey, who had only dropped one game for the year.
The underdog status didn’t bother Cowlishaw and his playing group as they took the match 2-1 and secured a week off in the lead up to the grand final.
“It was good. We were pretty confident going in after a couple of close games against them in the home and away season,” he said.
“We knew we could beat them it was just a matter of putting 70 minutes of good hockey together and keeping them out.”
While Werribee will compete for top honours on Sunday at the State Netball and Hockey Centre, one thing the club has already won is promotion in to State League Two next season.
Because of the Hockey Victoria competition restructure, four sides from SL3 will be promoted.
After finishing fifth last season Cowlishaw said his young playing group had improved a lot in the off-season and he was confident there was still more to come.
“Last year we were a really young group. A lot of 16 and 17-year-olds and we had a few who were 20 and 21 and then five or six of the older ones,” he said.
“Those older guys have still stayed on and the younger ones have improved a lot. Obviously we were always going to improve on finishing fifth last year but to get up to second was good.
“We know next year that we have these young kids still and there are more coming through. It’s just a matter of getting the game time into them and improving where they need to improve.
“The future is looking really good for the club.”
