After an unscheduled weather-related week off, Orbost Hockey Club was back in action for round 11 action of the 2024 East Gippsland Hockey Association season last Saturday when it travelled to the WORLD facility in Bairnsdale to take on its opponents Maffra.
Across a day of exciting play, two of the Green and Gold’s junior teams registered big victories, including a first win of the season registered by the under 18s side.
In what has been a rebuilding season with a young squad, Orbost’s under 18s team has shown plenty of promise in 2024 without ever being able to pull together that full four-quarter performance that allowed them to salute victory.
When Maffra scored early in this contest, a familiar script appeared to be writing itself, only for the Green and Gold to turn the game on its head with a string of dangerous attacks, one of which led to a penalty stroke being awarded for a goalie infraction.
Joe Mathews absorbed the pressure of the moment and fired home his side’s equaliser, and on their next attack Blake Robinson found the back of the cage with a clever sweep shot that wrong-footed the keeper.
Orbost now sensed it had its opponent on the ropes, and with Mitch Farley’s running, Chloe Findley’s crossing and Ellie Florance’s rebounding, the goals kept on coming before halftime, three more scored from the stick of Robinson, one a deft flick, another a looping effort, and the third from a tight angle after his teammates manoeuvred the defenders out of position.
Maffra tried to claw its way back into the proceedings, but with goalie Tye Robinson using his boots and his body to good effect, including in a pair of particularly impressive smothers, the Green and Gold defence was able to shut the door on them.
After Mia Joiner twice went close to converting telling crosses at the far post, Georgia Anderson was in the perfect position to scramble home a loose ball for her team’s sixth goal, with Leni Millward on hand to pop up at the right time and place in attack to score the seventh.
Fittingly it was a Blake Robinson powerful run and big blast from distance that brought the scoring to a close, capping a great team performance and a richly deserved opportunity to walk off the field victorious.
Final score: Orbost 8 d Maffra 1.
Earlier in the day Orbost’s under 12s also recorded a big win built on the back of an impressive team effort that saw them move the ball with both speed and efficiency.
Alex Kenny slotted home the first goal of the match from a tight angle after Cohen Mathews’ dangerous attack, with Joe Millward then scoring a pair of almost identical goals back-to-back, both coming as the result of him pouncing on a loose ball in midfield, powering forward with it on his stick, and then keeping his cool to fire it cleanly into the cage.
Kitty Millward made it four goals for the Green and Gold just before half time with a clean strike, before early in the second she turned provider for Jacob Rutherford, the latter coming close to adding his name to the scoresheet on three separate occasions after the break.
Strong tackling and rebound work from Geoffrey Florance served to both protect his team’s clean sheet at the back and repeatedly propel the ball forward into attack, with Kenny getting onto the end of two of such forward forays to complete his personal hat-trick – one goal being cleverly threaded through a sea of defensive legs, and the other being a conversion of Lily Crofts’ clinical cross.
When Kitty Millward drove down the wing with authority late in the contest and fired cleanly into the goal, Orbost had completed a thoroughly convincing win in which every player on the field had made a significant impact.
Final score: Orbost 7 d Maffra 0.
Orbost Hockey Club will be back in action this Saturday when it travels to Bairnsdale to take on local rivals, Nagle.
