Goulburn Valley locals gear up as Junior Hockey State Championships hit Shepparton

By Contributed

Jul 2, 2024

A strong Goulburn Valley presence will be participating in the Hockey Junior State Championships, with many representing the North East Lightning, while others will feature for other country or metro outfits. Photo by Megan Fisher

Four of the six Hockey Victoria Junior State Championships to be contested this week are being played at the Shepparton Sports Precinct hockey fields.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

The other two championships are being played simultaneously in Bendigo.

This is a return to both these regional venues after their successful hosting of the championships coming out of COVID-19.

Goulburn Valley Hockey Association and Greater Shepparton City Council are hosting 43 teams across the under-12 boys and under-12 girls Hockey 5s championships and the under-14 and 16 girls full field championships.

Hockey Central Victoria and City of Greater Bendigo are hosting 18 teams across the under-14 and under-16 boys championships and will host the under-18 boys and girls championship in the next holidays.

Excitingly the major sponsors for these championships is Kyabram company Water Partners, which also supported the GVHA Junior Country Championship teams and XR Elements which also supported the Hockey Central Victoria Junior Country Championship teams.

The under-12s are being played on Wednesday, July 3 and Thursday, July 4 with the under-14s and 16s to follow on Friday, July 5 to Sunday, July 7.

Hockey 5s is a game that was developed for the Youth Olympics which started in 2010.

Earlier this year the first Hockey 5s World Cup was hosted in Oman and both the Australian men’s and women’s teams had regional representatives including some Victorians who played JSC in their youth.

Played in an area about a quarter of the size of a regular field and bounded on all sides by boards approximately 30cm high this game has four field players and a goalkeeper pitted against each other, but with the added advantage of being able to use the boards to make the passes.

It makes for an exciting game that develops close stick skills, vision, decision making and team play.

There will be four Hockey 5s fields set up for this championship.

Full field hockey is the traditional version of the game and will be played by the Australian Hockeyroos and Koookaburras at the upcoming Olympics in Paris.

The two pitches in Shepparton will both be in full use during these championships

The Hockey Victoria Junior State Championships are contested between teams representing the nine zones across Victoria – three regional and six metropolitan.

Goulburn Valley Hockey Association players are members of the North West Lightning Zone, the largest zone by area, which also includes Hockey Central Victoria, Wimmera Hockey Association, North Central Hockey Association and Sunraysia Hockey Association.

Goulburn Valley Hockey Association has 25 players representing North West Lightning this week with players in every representative team and from every club within the association.

GVHA also has coaches, managers and umpires participating across the week.

There are also a number of GVHA players in other zone teams this week.

Overall a great effort and worthy of a visit.

ˑ To find out more about game times and fixtures, head to Hockey Victoria’s website.