2023 Grassports Junior Country Championships Wrap-up

Published Wed 24 May 2023

The 2023 Grassports Junior Country Championships hit Melbourne over the weekend, with a record 53 teams competing!

Congratulations to all the Associations that competed in the Event, in particular the following teams that participated in Gold Medal matches or 3^rd Place Play-offs:

Age Group	Gold Medallists	Silver Medallists	3^rd Place
Under 13 Boys	Hockey Ballarat	North Central	Geelong
Under 13 Girls	Glenelg	Hockey Ballarat	Hockey South West & Hockey Central Vic (shared)
Under 15 Boys	Hockey Central Vic	Glenelg	Ballarat
Under 15 Girls	Goulburn Valley	Geelong	Glenelg
Under 18 Boys	Hockey Ballarat	Hockey Central Vic	Geelong
Under 18 Girls	West Gippsland	North Central	Glenelg & Hockey Central Vic (shared)

Congratulations to not only to the teams that made it into those matches, but all of the teams that competed in the Event. The level of play and sportsmanship were wonderful across the whole weekend. It was awesome to have the following 53 teams competing:

Under 13 Boys		Under 13 Girls
Pool A	Pool B	Pool A	Pool B
West Gippsland	North Central	Sunraysia	North Central
Sunraysia	Hockey South West	Hockey Central Vic	Hockey South West
Hockey Central Vic	GVHA	Geelong	GVHA
Geelong	Glenelg	Ballarat	Glenelg
Ballarat	East Gippsland	West Gippsland	East Gippsland

Under 15 Boys		Under 15 Girls
Pool A	Pool B	Pool A	Pool B
Sunraysia	North Central	Sunraysia	North Central
Hockey Central Vic	GVHA	Hockey Central Vic	GVHA
Geelong	Glenelg	Geelong	Glenelg
Ballarat	East Gippsland	Ballarat	East Gippsland

Under 18 Boys		Under 18 Girls
Pool A	Pool B	Pool A	Pool B
West Gippsland	North Central	West Gippsland	North Central
Sunraysia	Hockey Central Vic	Geelong	Sunraysia
GVHA	Glenelg	Hockey Central Vic	Glenelg
Geelong	East Gippsland	Ballarat	East Gippsland
Ballarat

To check out the results from the final day, please click here.

A huge thank you to all the officials involved in the Event, from the Umpires, volunteers on the Tech Bench through to the Tournament Directors and Umpires Managers for their tireless work across the course of the weekend. Special mention to the wonderful Tournament Directors and Umpire Managers below:

Event	Tournament Director	Assistant Tournament Director	Umpire Manager	Assistant Umpire Manager	Umpire Manager Mentor
Under 13 Boys & Girls	Mike Trenery	Ann Lennie, Sue MacMillan & Ron Holmes	James Horne	Gordon Weir	Keeley O’Reilly
Under 15 Boys & Girls	Rodney Kay	Cheyne Hackett & Isaiah Peterson	Isabel Wright	Harry Huang
Under 18 Boys & Girls	Lyn Page-Bathols	Christine Henderson & Stuart McCleary	Iris Milham	Ben Wills

Finally, thank you to the following:

The Greensborough and Essendon Hockey clubs and all their volunteers for hosting the Event, we really appreciate your efforts, and you did a wonderful job in welcoming the regional associations to your venues.
Melbourne Sports Centres Parkville for hosting as well, it was great to see the venue buzzing on the weekend and all participants enjoying the wonderful facilities on offer.
Phoenix First Aid for covering all three venues across the weekend.
Andrew Wiseman for his photography at Melbourne Sports Centres Parkville on Sunday. Album can be found here.
If you have any additional photos, please email a link to media@hockeyvictoria.org.au
Man Lift Hire and Cluch for making it possible to live stream some of the matches on Sunday at each venue. Head to livehockey.com.au to watch the replays.
A big thank you to the Event sponsor, Grassports Australia. They are installers of synthetic grass and hardcourt surfaces at schools, clubs and homes. Be sure to get in contact with the team if you need a new synthetic grass or hardcourt surface installed or an existing one maintained. They can be contacted on 03) 6144 7099 or at info@grassports.com.au.
Finally, thank you to all the JCC Coordinators, coaches and team managers from each association. We really appreciate all the work you put in to make it possible for the teams to attend the Event!