2017 Update

Firstly, I would like to offer my sincere apologies for the lack of updates this year - due to technical difficulties and a few personal issues coming up behind the scenes, it's not been possible to provide stable updates for most of the season. The technicaly issues have now been mostly resolved, so I am providing a summary and overview of this season, for our teams and for club events.

Team Results for 2018

Turf Mens

We have had a new person step into the role of Senior Men's Coach this year - Frank Quaresimin, who has brought across coaching experience from several MTL clubs, along with new ideas about structure and approaching the game. Unfortunately, it has been a tough year, in a tough new grade, and though they picked up steam towards the end of the season, our Provisional 1 Mens team unfortunately finished last on the ladder. They fought well all the way through the season despite the hard circumstances, and hopefully we will see many of our players back next year to take a crack at the 2018 season.

Turf Womens

Our Senior Women's Provisional 4 team, coached once again by Craig Trott, played hard and well this year, and with an influx of players they rarely lacked for numbers either. Their hard work paid off at the end of season, finishing in 3rd place, and played off against ECU Rangers last Sunday. In a close match, our ladies eeked out an amazing 3-2 win in strokes, putting them into the Preliminary Final this coming weekend. Don't miss their game at 1pm at Hale on Saturday the 2nd!

Over 40s

Plagued by injuries and a few other things, our Over 40s Masters team hasn't faired as well as previous years, though by all accounts they seemed to have had a lot of fun. They finished in 6th, just losing out 5th by score difference, but with only 4 points between them and 3rd place, it's been a close shave nonetheless. Hopefully everyone will be back next year to keep on going with the awesome grass hockey. Oh, and of course, the after game beers!

Over 50s

The Over 50s Masters team also finished in 6th this year, though they definitely had us thinking they might get to finals! Like the Over 40s, they also saw old players returning - Tony Freeman was back in goals, and Peter 'Flubber' McDowell came back to play in the midfield. Overall it's been great to see all of our older members down to play each week, having fun and showing everyone that they still have a lot of their skill. More than that though, they also showed their sportsmanship, buying the first round of drinks for home games for them and their opposition, and spending plenty of time chatting and catching up with players from other clubs. Much like the Over 40s Masters, it will be great to see everyone back and enjoying themselves again next year.

Metro Mens

For the Metro 3 Men, this season has been phenomenal - finishing in 5th place by only 2 points, with a score difference of an astouding 35 goals. Half of those came from a shocker 16-0 win against Dale during the middle of the season, who only had 8 players that game, but it's still a great achievement for our Metros! Indeed, it has certainly been a long time since they've had such a solid performance on the ladder. Generally speaking, numbers were a little unsteady to start with, but after the first couple of games they always had reserves, and many of the players have shown remarkable growth over the last two seasons. With the best of luck, everyone will be back to keep on improving next year, and maybe push into finals as well.

Club Events

We've had lots of club involvement and events running this year, starting with our annual friendly match against Pingelly. Much like every year, it's a great game to play and watch, and there's plenty of catching up and drinking after the game, along with a few speeches!

Pre-Season Carnival

Harlies, in conjunction with Ellenbrook, us, and ECU Rangers, held a warmup carnival this year at Breckler Park. We sent down a total of 3 teams - one Masters, one mens, and one womens. It was great to see so many people coming out to get a head start on the season and enjoy a great day!

Busy Bee

We also had our Busy Bee shortly after, and it was fantastic to see so many volunteers coming down to help us get ready for the season proper. Thank you again for all of those who helped, putting in their time and effort to make sure the club was ready when the first round started.

Altone Comes Alive and Opening Night

Right at the start of the season we had two big events for the club; during the day, we joined in on the annual Altone Comes Alive festival, setting up our own stall to attract new people in the area. Thank you to those who volunteered their time during the day to man the stall - we even had a friendly endorsement from the local police!

That night was also our Opening Night, where we welcomed our new Senior Men's coach Frank Quaresimin and presented him with a club shirt. It was a great night just to have a few drinks, get to know people from other teams, and share in a bit of our club atmosphere as the season began.

Movie Night

A fun tradition for the club, and to acknowledge our sponsorship from Greater Union Morley, the club held a movie night with discounted tickets to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and we had a pretty good turnout, especially for a school night! Hopefully we'll continue to get people down to help thank our sponsors and have some fun outside of hockey as well as around games.

Bunnings Sausage Sizzle

We were welcomed back again this year to Morley's Bunnings Warehouse for another Sausage Sizzle; thank you again to all of those who helped us rotate through manning the stall on a busy Sunday. Much like last year, we raised a lot of money, a bit over $1200, and sold over 700 sausages!

Hook in 2 Hockey Term 2

Over the course of the second school term, the club ran a Hin2H, helping young players get a taste for the sport and have a lot of fun as they train and play. Thank you to all of the volunteers from the club who helped coach and look after the kids throughout the programme. It was also great to round off the Term 2 program with a friendly Kids v Parents game.

Mexican Night

A new social event this year, the club held a Mexican themed night on the 1st of July; we had an utterly fantastic turnout from members, as well as getting club Sponsors Vic Giannakis from Better Choice Mortgage Services and Jacko from Precision Elevator Removals down to the night. Thank you to all of those who cooked the lovely food, and manned the bar during the night; hopefully this just might become a new club tradition!

Ric Hocking Memorial Day

An older club tradition, we held the Ric Hocking Memorial Day on Saturday the 15th of July, to commemorate those members who are no longer with us. It is also a day for us to present a medal in honour of Ric Hocking, who was a determined, enthusiastic, and generally great member of the club, to the best on ground during our Over 50s game on the day. This year, it was presented to Tony Freeman, who graciously accepted the award and helped us honour Ric's, and all of the other members who are no longer with us', memories.

Sponsors' Day

A revived club event, we held a Sponsors' Day on Sunday the 30th July at Hale Hockey Club, where club sponsors and members were invited to watch the back-to-back games with our two senior turf teams, and get to know our sponsors a bit better. Both Vic Giannakis from Better Choice Mortgage Services and Jacko from Precision Elevator Removals came down to watch and enjoy the food and drinks provided by the club. We would like to extend our thanks to Hale Hockey Club for allowing us to host this event with the use of their equipment and clubrooms.

Quiz Night

Usually one of our busiest nights during the year, this year did not disappoint, with a packed room full of club members and their families. There were lots of prizes again this year, and challenging questions that kept everyone entertained. The club would like to extend a huge thank you to Deb and Craig Trott for the tremendous amount of effort they put in to the night to ensure its success. We also thank the sponsors for their prizes, and the Committee and club members who helped sell raffle tickets, mark answers, and man & stock the bar. The club raised over $2000 on the night; we thank you all for your continued support of our social and fundraising events.

Hook in 2 Hockey Term 3

Our Term 3 programme for Hin2H involved a round robin carnival with Guildford and Kalamunda; thank you to all of our volunteers for helping us not only coach, train, and umpire the kids, but also provide food and drinks when it was our turn to host. The kids had a blast and always loved having the sausage sizzle afterwards. It really means a lot to the club to have people supporting our development of junior hockey in the area.

Mallee Root Cup

The annual match at our grounds against Pingelly Hockey Club was on Sunday the 27th of August, where we had a good mix of players from our mens team play off against some of the Pingelly members who made the drive up to Altone. Blades won 5-1, but as per usual, the score rarely matters for our games against Pingelly - it's a great day to have fun and play some good, friendly hockey. Our women's side is raring to have their share next year too - hopefully we can organise something with Pingelly abotu a womens match next year as well.

Major Milestone

We had an important milestone this year - Ian 'Goldie' Goldspink played his 850th game for the club, which we believe is both a state and possibly national record for games played for a single club. Goldie's continued support and membership is always appreciated, and we hope he is still having lots of fun playing for Eastern Blades.

Upcoming: AGM and Windup

Don't forget we still have our Club Windup and AGM on the way - it will be held on the 16th of September, starting at 6:30pm, at Hedibank Satidum this year. Prices are much reduced compared to previous years at $50 a head, though this doesn't include drinks (which can be purchased at the venue still). Please see your team representatives for tickets; we'd love to see all of our members there if they can make it!

Once again, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for the lack of updates this year; with the technical problems mostly dealt with, it should hopefully not be an issue going forward from here.

Regards,

James Writer
EBHC Website Admin