GOULBURN Hockey Association sent two under 13 girls teams to Wagga Wagga to compete in the NSW State titles between July 1 and 3.
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The Goulburn One Team, coached by Naomi “Noddy” Jones contained the nucleus of the previous year’s undefeated Under 11 side.
The Goulburn One side have been a work in progress for a number of years, the result being a side that can match it with the best representative teams from any region in the State.
Playing in a very strong Division Two, the girls conceded only one goal in a draw against Central Coast.
They defeated the competitive Bathurst, New England and Far North Coast teams en route to the finals.
The Goulburn girls saved their strongest attacking performance for the semi-final against Parkes, running out 3-0 winners before meeting the Orange team in the final.
In a tense match, where the girls battled to gain momentum, it was their ability to modify team structure during the game, that closed out the 1-0 victory.
They can head into Division One in 2017 with a great level of confidence, as most of the girls will be eligible for Under 13s again.
In recognition of the great performance over the weekend, three players, Makayla “Moo” Jones, Georgie “Pud” Smithers and Madelyn “Madge” Croker earned selection in the NSW U13 State squad, which met for final selection trials last Sunday, July 17.
Goulburn Two, coached by Robbie Hughes, featured a lot of faces new to representative hockey.
Their Division Four group contained Hunter, Central Coast and two teams from Canberra.
The girls recorded strong wins in the pool matches entering the finals undefeated by scoring 10 goals and conceding only 1 in the process.
The girls emerged strongly from a 2-0 win over Hunter in the semi-final to face Canberra Two in the main event.
In an absolute arm wrestle involving two extra times and drop off, the teams could not be separated and were declared well deserved joint winners to earn promotion to Division Three for 2017.
This success followed the U15 State titles in Taree, where the Goulburn Girls achieved third place in Division Two, which resulted in Caitlin Jones and Emma Baxter earning NSW State Squad Selection.
