IT was another successful campaign, as Glenelg Region Hockey Association (GRHA) completed a threepeat of Under-13 Girls Victorian Junior Country Championship titles on Sunday.

GRHA teams also brought home the silver medal in the Under-15 Boys section, finished third in the Under-15 Girls and Under-18 Girls competitions, and fourth in the Under-13 Boys and Under-18 Boys competitions.

The GRHA – which is one of the smallest in Victoria with only five clubs making up the association – sent a team in each of the six age groups to contest the championships.

Every team went on to reach the semi-finals after finishing as one of the top two teams of their pool after preliminary matches.

“It really is an incredible result for the association,” GRHA president, Mark Templeton said.

“We are by comparison a small association and to be able to pull together not only six representative sides, but sides which are competitive against teams who draw from a much larger pool of players than we do, is a real credit to the players who take the pitch every week and the coaches we have locally.”

Glenelg has won the Under-13 Girls championship every year since 2021, and this year the team was coached by Georgina Templeton and team managed by Sardie Edgar.

The team won the grand final against Ballarat, 3-0, with an impressive display of hockey which saw the ball only enter the opposition’s defensive area a handful of times.

Grand final goal scorers were Phoebe Lazzari, Millie Mould and Ella Peters.

The Under-15 Boys side, made up largely of the 2022 Under-13 side which was runner up last year, again missed out on the gold medal, going down to a much older and highly skilled Hockey Central Victoria team in the decider, 1-3.

The team was coached by Heath Templeton and team managed by Nic Cullinane, with Charlie Hiscock the lone goal-scorer in the grand final.

The Under-15 Girls, coached by Lea MacArthur and team managed by Penny Fraser, was relegated to the third place play-off after a 1-1 draw in the semi-final against Geelong, which saw the team miss out on a grand final berth due to ladder positions.

They defeated Ballarat in the third place play off, 2-1, with goals scored by Marianna Novikov and Grace Potter.

The Under-18 Girls, coached by Issy and Harry Musson and team managed by Alison Read, finished third after ladder positions determined them the winner of a 0-0 third place playoff against Hockey Central Victoria.

The Under-13 Boys team, coached by Doug Cameron and team managed by Ben Hawthorne, lost the third place play-off, 0-1, to Geelong.

The Under-18 boys, coached by Mark Jarvis and team managed by Sally Jarvis and Stephen Nelson, also lost its third place play off to Geelong, going down, 0-4.

The Hockey Victoria 2023 Junior Country Championships was held last weekend at three venues in Melbourne and attracted 53 teams representing every region in Victoria, including Traralgon, Ballarat and Bendigo.