Under 12 Girls

The u12 girls kicked off the 2012 Regional Challenge Cup tournament on a positive note with a 1-0 win against Shepparton Juniors. In a hard fought contest Geelong scored the winning goal in the dying minutes after a cross from Georgia Atkinson was deflected into goals.

The girls then fronted for their second match of the tournament against Bendigo winning 2-0 with goals to Lara Heric and Coby McInerney.

Day 2 began with a match against the undefeated Albury side who proved too strong for the Geelong girls winning 5-0.

The second match on Day Two was against regional derby rivals Ballarat. The girls dug deep and came back from an early 2 goal deficit to draw the match with two goals from Coby McInerney.

Results at the start of the final day saw the girls needing to at least draw against Gippsland to earn a finals berth. Gippsland scored first but with terrific support from the Geelong supporters the girls again dug deep and two more goals to Coby McInerney sealed their place in the final.

The girls faced a still undefeated Albury in the final and despite a valiant effort they went down to the tournament champions in a 3-1 loss. Geelong’s only goal, scored by Coby McInerney, came from a penalty kick late in the second half.

The Geelong girls showed great spirit and displayed their terrific skills throughout the tournament and represented Geelong with distinction.  

Under 12 Boys
 
Another year, another fine display by the region’s youngest boys’ squad with a comfortable 7-0 win over Echuca-Moama on the first day of the tournament.

An early win on Saturday provided confidence leading up to their second day fixtures with wins against Bendigo 4-2 and Swan hill 12-0 however,  Geelong were held to a 3-3 draw against a talented Shepparton side.

A 7-2 win in the semi-final against a second Bendigo squad on the final day of the tournament helped Geelong set up a grand final berth against tournament contenders Shepparton.

The final comprised of a solid, attacking flair with plenty of action from one end to another and in the end it was down to a penalty given to Geelong which was then easily converted – providing the winning goal, and ultimately handing the region the only grand final triumph out of the five Geelong teams who appeared into the finals.
 
In addition to the grand final win, highlights of the tournaments included the team leading goal scorer Thomas Hidic bagging 16 goals from all matches, as well as Tristan McGrath who was awarded the Archie Thompson Medal (Under 12 Boys’ player of the tournament award).
Under 12 coaches Igor Srbinovski and Ahmad Sulaimi were very impressed with the technical quality of players at such a young age, and also the fantastic effort from the squad leading up to, and during the weekend with many of the boys making their debut into the prestigious regional tournament. The future looks bright for the region.

Under 13 Boys

Overall view of the tournament - great support from all the families, very positive - very enjoyable weekend.  The weather was kind to us which made the weekend so much more pleasurable.

Dario Serra did a wonderful job with the kids - especially since he did not even know half of them before this event.  Great backup support from Assistant Coach Mario Didulica.

Team spirit was fought right to the end, battle scars and all - after playing four games on Monday, in the Grand Final game we had three boys wounded and left us with only two subs on the bench.  

Minutes were counting down - boys were tired given their all - the whistle blew - it was all over!  To the boys’ credit - we all felt like they had won. It was a tremendous effort and exciting right to the end.  Hopefully all boys will be back again next year.

We will add more wraps for each age group as they become available from team managers.