2021 Junior Country Championships Wrap-up

Published Mon 17 May 2021

The 2021 JCC has been run and won! It was fantastic to see the Event back in 2021 and we saw some excellent hockey played across all three venues.

Under 13’s

A total of five girl’s teams and seven boy’s teams competed in the Under 13 Competitions at Essendon over the weekend. For many of them, this was their first taste of the JCC and it was great to see them all out on the pitch having a great time after such an interrupted year last year.

In the Under 13 Boys, it was Hockey Albury Wodonga and Hockey Ballart that met in the Gold Medal Match. In their Pool match a little earlier in the day, it was a very close encounter with Hockey Albury Wodonga prevailing 1-0. But in the Gold Medal Match, Hockey Ballarat got the upper hand and were able to prevail 3-1 and took home the Gold Medal.

In the Under 13 Girls, it was Glenelg and Hockey Albury Wodonga that met in the Gold Medal Match. It could not have been closer when they met each other in their Pool match on Saturday, with a 2-2 draw. But, in the Gold Medal Match it was Glenelg that were the winners 3-0 and were the Gold Medal winners.

In the boys, we saw Ajay Heagney (Hockey Albury Wodonga) top the goal scoring with 6 from his 7 matches and in the girls, Sheena Fitzpatrick (North Central) was prolific with 8 goals in her 6 matches.

Under 15’s

There was a total of 8 boy’s teams and 9 girls teams competing in the Under 15s at Greensborough.

In the Under 15 Girl’’s, it was North Central and West Gippsland that topped their respective Pools, with Hockey Ballarat and Glenelg in second place and making it through to the semi-finals. In semi-final 1 it was Hockey Ballarat that won 3-1 and in Semi-Final 2 West Gippsland had a 4-0 victory over Glenelg. In the Gold Medal Match it was West Gippsland that secured a 3-0 victory.

In the Under 15 Boys, Hockey Ballarat topped Pool A in front of Goulburn Valley and in Pool B Hockey Albury Wodonga sealed top position in front of Sunraysia. But, when it came to the Semi-Finals we saw two upset with the second placed teams taking victory in both cases. Sunraysia won Semi-Final 1 in a close encounter 2-1 and Goulburn Valley defeated local rivals Hockey Albury Wodonga by the same score line. Goulburn Valley continued their winning ways in the Grand Final with a 4-1 victory and took home the Gold Medal.

In the girl’s we saw Bianca Zurrer (West Gippsland) score a stunning 10 goals in just 6 matches and in the boys, it was Shon Francis (Hockey Albury Wodonga) who topped the table with 5 goals in 5 matches.

Under 18’s

In the Under 18s we had 7 boy’s teams and 5 girl’s teams battling it out across the weekend at Footscray.

In the boy’s, Hockey Central Vic went through the Pool matches undefeated with six wins from six matches and met the second placed Hockey Albury Wodonga in the final. In a close encounter, Hockey Central Vic were able to prevail 2-1 to secure the Gold Medal.

In the Girl’s, it was incredibly close with 3 teams finishing on equal points after the Pool Matches. Hockey Albury Wodonga and Goulburn Valley met in the Grand Final in what was unsurprisingly a very close encounter. A solitary goal for Hockey Albury Wodonga saw them take home the Gold Medal.

We had three girls finish the event as equal top goal scorer and they were Michaela Franks (Hockey Albury Wodonga), Annabelle Nichols (Sunraysia) and Courtney Thompson (Goulburn Valley) with 4 goals from their 6 matches. In the boys Tyler Green (Hockey Central Vic) scored a remarkable 14 goals from 7 matches

Officials

A massive thank you to all of the officials that were involved in the event on the weekend. We had a fantastic team of Umpires, Umpire Managers and Tournament Directors across all three venues and we cannot thank you enough for your time and efforts.

A special mention must to go the following people that filled the key officiating positions over the weekend:

Age Group	Tournament Directors	Umpire Managers
Under 13 Boys & Girls	Lyn Page-Bathols & Ann Lennie	Sam Cutrale & John Blyth
Under 15 Boys & Girls	Rodney Kay and Kerrie Brown	Jeremy Harris & Iris Milham
Under 18 Boys & Girls	Karen Lawrence & Christine Henderson	Nicola Brown & Milli Castor

Congratulations to the following umpires that were appointed to the respective Gold Medal Matches:

Age Group	Umpires
Under 13 Boys	Antoine Hobbs & Augustus Orange
Under 13 Girls	Alex Shortis & Mackenzie Hughes
Under 15 Boys	Ewan Wightman-Gonzalez & Stuart Hallett
Under 15 Girls	Millar Kay-Kneebone & Sabriah Peterson
Under 18 Boys	Jared Cake & Josh Mason
Under 18 Girls	Austin Boyd & Ben Wills

Replays of Live Streamed Matches

All the matches that were played on Pitch 1 on Sunday were live streamed through the Herald Sun website. If you want to check out any of those matches, replays are available on the following page – Herald Sun - JCC Streaming.

Please note that you must be a Herald Sun subscriber to view the replays.

Acknowledgements

This event would not have been possible without the assistance and support of the following:

The three host clubs, in Essendon Hockey Club, Greensborough Hockey Club & Footscray Hockey Club – we are incredibly appreciative of the hospitality you provided across the weekend and all the work you put in during the lead up.
Man Lift Hire – for generously providing scissor lifts at all three venues so that the live stream could take place.
My Sport Live – for their work behinds to get the live stream on air on Sunday.
Herald Sun – for their fantastic coverage in the lead up to and across the Event.
The Association Coordinators, Coaches and Team Managers for making it possible for all the teams to compete in the JCC.

We look forward to seeing everyone back in 2022 for the JCC!