Thrilling ICC & JIC games continue to unfold

The Indoor Club Championships and Junior Indoor Challenge continued through February with the Under 16 Junior Indoor Challenge on the 15 & 16 Feb, and the Under 16 Girls & Boys ICC on the 21-23 Feb.

Under 16 Girls

There was a total of 6 teams in the U16 Girls ICC this year. 19 matches played across the weekend at the SNHC and Monash University, with a huge101 goals scored. Leading goal scorer went to Gabriella Pezzimenti from Brunswick Hockey Club.

Each team got the chance the play each other in Pool A for a total of 5 matches, with the top 4 teams from Pool A progressing into the Semi-Final matches.

In SF1, undefeated Footscray took on fourth place Greensborough. A back and forth contest ended with Greensborough taking the upset, winning 3-4.

In SF2, Brunswick and Waverley went head-to-head to determine the second grand final contestant. Brunswick won a tense 2-1 match, and progress to meet Burra in the Grand Final.

In a rematch of the 2023 Grand Final, leading goal scorer Gabriella Pezzimenti got things started for her club Brunswick with a penalty corner goal. It was more Brunswick in the start of the second, as goals 2 and 3 were scored in the 24^th minute creating an almost insurmountable lead. Greensborough were resilient in their efforts, but it was not quite enough to stop the brilliant Brunswick display. Brunswick would go on to win the match 3-0.

The final standings were as follows:

Under 16 Boys

There was a total of 24 matches played across the three days at SNHC and Monash University with 180 goals scored. The leading goal scorer going to Jakob Rossner from Yarra Hockey Club, with 16 goals.

In the original pool matches, each team played 3 matches. The top 2 from each pool then progressed into Pool C, and the bottom two teams progressed into Pool D for the next set of Pool matches to determine final classification matches.

It ended up being Doncaster and Footscray who topped Pool C and would meet in the Grand Final, whilst Mentone & Yarra were the next two ranked teams and would play in the 3^rd place play-off.

In the 3^rd place play-off, things were neck and neck for majority of the first half as neither team could find the back of the net. Xavier Connor and Will Carter scoring back-to-back goals to end the half – putting Mentone up 2-0. Connor continued his hot streak into the second half, scoring another to put Mentone up 3-0. Yarra then responded with 2 goals but it proved to be too little too late, as Mentone went on to win 3-2 in a tough contest.

It was a 1 v 2 showdown in the Grand Final, as Doncaster took on Footscray in what would be one of the most thrilling ICC grand finals in recent memory. As Doncaster were 4 minutes away from victory, Emerson Marshall from Footscray just snuck a goal past the Doncaster keeper to knot it at 2-2. As Doncaster were reeling, less than a minute later it was followed by another Footscray goal from William Buckland. As time ran out it was Footscray ahead 3-2, avenging their loss to Doncaster in 2023 and claiming back-to-back Championships.

The final standings were as follows:

Under 16 Mixed Junior Indoor Challenge

The Under 16 Mixed JIC was run at SNHC Parkville, with 4 teams participating across Saturday and Sunday.

It was great to see our developing indoor players taking the pitch for this tournament, and a thank you to all the officials and teams for their efforts.

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A huge thank you to all of the club administrators, team managers, coaches, players, officials and supporters that were involved in these events across the weekend!

To check out all of the results from the weekend, please use the following links:

Under 16 Girls

Under 16 Boys

Under 16 Junior Indoor Challenge

A huge thank you to our dedicated officials for their tireless work across the weekend. These events truly would not have been possible without you all. A special mention to the following for their appointments:

Under 16

Under 16 Mixed

The action continues this weekend (Feb 28, 1 & 2 March) with the U14 Boys & Girls ICC! Head to Altius for fixtures & results, and be sure to keep an eye our social channels for updates.