Week 1 of the finals is done and dusted, plenty of good volleyball on display and some fierce competition.
League men saw the end of an era, with three-peat hopeful Norwood bears knocked out in 4 sets by South Adelaide. Going straight into the grand final is perennially strong Mt Lofty, who also took 4 sets to knock off USC Lion.
Mt Lofty def USC Lion 3-1
Norwood def by South 1-3
Early ill discipline cost USC Lion in their semi final, giving a point up to an early card to Josh Lowrie as the team disagreed with the referee. Errors followed after that, and the hitting of Stu Maycock and Dave Jones took them through to an easy set win. The second set was riddled with errors, 29 between the two teams, but Mt Lofty outlasted Lion to take a 2-0 lead. The third set went USC Lion’s way as Lofty got careless, but Lofty were too good, taking out the 4th to go straight to the grand final.
Norwood’s best rotation didn’t really get a chance, with a change seeing Sam Halliday getting opportunities ahead of Hamish Moore. A heavy shift towards blocking cross drew limited success for Norwood, South dominating with ball down the line. Captain and setter Chris Gosling won the setters battle, setting good width to exploit the block move. He also brought the middle in well, setting wider quick balls well to put pressure on Norwood’s middles.
After the game we wished Norwood’s coach Glen Urbani a “bad luck” to which he replied, “no, just bad volleyball” which summed up Norwood, who unfortunately for them were not able to put their best form together.
League Women saw South continue their stellar form, heading straight to the grand final, leaving Lofty and USC Lion to fight it out next week for the other grand final spot.
South def Mt Lofty 3-1
USC Lion def Norwood 3-1
South’s leading lady, Eileen Romanowski had a cracker, leading her South team to a win over Mt Lofty. The star studded Lofty line up, including Anna Maycock, Hannah Ross and Sarah Choat couldn’t match their South counterparts, who defended well and transitioned expertly through their opposite. Some eyebrows were raised toward the a few calls by the officials, but the 3-1 win suggests that South were too good on the day and were good value for their Grand Final appearance. Interestingly, when was the last time a team went from a 25- 4 loss in their first set of the season to grand finalists…?
USC Lion ran over the top of Norwood, the bears got close in the sets, but Lion outclassed them and Norwood, although impressive in many games to get to the finals, were not up to the quality of the top 3.
Reserve Men saw another grand final appearance for USC Lion, who defeated Mt Lofty. The test for Lion now is getting over the line in two weeks against either Mt Lofty or Austral. Austral took out South, getting a fairly quick win.
Reserve Women again had USC Lion defeat Mt Lofty, the Lion girls are a strong team and a match between Lofty and Lion is worthy of a grand final. Lofty will need to defeat South next week for another shot at Lion. South were too good for Henley, overcoming a first set loss due to some careless errors. Bringing on their captain to play through the middle helped with some block form and consistency, taking 3 tight sets to win 3-1.
Div 1 Men enjoyed bit of an upset, with Mt Lofty losing just their second game of the season to Austral. Austral were far too good on the day, passing exceptionally and using all options on attack. On the back of that match, it is hard to see Austral getting beaten in the final, where they are likely to face Lofty again, who will hopefully bounce back from their loss.
Div 1 Women sees another Lofty team into the final, with Mt Lofty 2 defeating Mt Lofty 1 easily, 3-0. USC Lion took out the other semi, and their match against Lofty 1 will be an interesting tussle to see who goes through into the final.
South def Norwood**
Francoise.
Smile.
Norwood def by South, tbh. No comment to be made about how wrong I was re: Div 1 men?
Nice change up.
No comment needed, I said all I wanted to already, time to look forward to when we play lofty again in the final (no offense to lion)
Div 1 men- Austral all the way. I have foreseen it… It will be so.
Another finals series dominated by Mt Lofty, USC and South. At least there will be another club (Austral Div. 1 Men) represented on Grand Final day. As a South player myself, I love seeing my club succeed, but I have noticed a trend of the last few years: very few Henley and Austral supporters around on GF day. Is it a matter of time until State League becomes a four club competition? Henley doesn’t have a Men’s League team, and their Reserve Men finished bottom. Austral resorted to getting a social team from the Goodwood competition to fill their Reserve Men’s team (a good thing actually, great seeing a few older gents run around and be competitive). I don’t aim to be critical of Henley and Austral, but of the whole volleyball machine in SA.
Anyways, I’ll see you all in a fortnight. Dressed in red, black and white….
Just to clarify, Austral had more than enough players to field 3 or 4 teams this season, “resort” is not the right word at all.
Austral has more than enough members to continue functioning, all that is needed is more attention to rebuild a junior programs, something that a number of clubs are required to do really, to ensure long term viability.
Also considering in the last 2 years Norwood has won Reserves men once and League men twice, and runner up in div 1 men, it might be a stretch to claim “another” year of domination.
At the end of the day, only lion and Lofty can claim total domination of this league. Every single one of their teams made the finals… Brilliant stuff from them!
I think the issue Tommilenko was raising here was the fact that Austral only had 2 of their 6 teams make finals (and one of those teams as you correctly pointed out was made up mostly from outside the ‘more than enough members at austral’) and henley only had 1 of their 5 teams make it. Not the dominace of the other clubs. This is significantly lower teams than Norwood and South, who had 4 out of their 6 teams make finals and USC and Lofty who had their 6 and 7 teams make it respectively. It does seem to be a 4 sided affair.
Henley had their 2 senior mens teams finished bottom in ressies and second bottom in div 1 and they did not field a league mens team. I would love to know what Henley are going to do to try and find that league squad that I know all of their members and opposition are wanting to see back up there.
Austral seem to have the players but always miss out on finals. I agree with Tommy, it would be good to see them out there in the GF as well.
i think there’s no denying that at the senior level there is a gap between Lion, Lofty & South, and Henley, Norwood and Austral. The “Big 3″ have had less turnover of players, and have consistently fielded 2 reserves teams which only makes their senior programmes stronger. losing 2 seasons of League men’s experience will mean henley will struggle at first if and when they return.
I know Henley have just elected a new president who is dead keen on getting back into League Men. they have sponsors and will be looking for players and a coach, so hopefully we’ll be back to 6 teams again. They’re also going to “re-brand” and the terrible bottle-green coloured hawks mascot is getting the flick.
Norwood Men had the best men’s programme in 2008-2009, but hasn’t been as successful in the women’s. They have young guys like Sam Halliday and Nick Anstey coming through in the men’s and some of the girls from their juniors are coming through now. Their junior programme will really start bearing some fruit in the next few years.
Austral men made some huge progress with Simon Phillips coaching them this year. when they get their juniors going they won’t be far behind, and the work Murph’s been doing with the women will pay off next year. Most of murph’s teams weren’t that far from making finals.
I have faith that we will have 6 strong clubs in the next few years with strong junior programmes that will ensure long term survival. I think we’ve already hit the bottom and the only way is up now.
I think that over the years there is no doubt that this competition has been dominated by the three larger clubs of USC, LOFTY & SOUTH. For the three clubs of Norwood, South & Henley they seem to be in good hands for the future. With every competition there must always be a bottom team/s/club who is always working there club to become a better club.
With regards to Hugh comments on Henley, yes we are dead keen on putting a league team into the competition next season and recruiting for this isnt going to be easy. To ask what are we doing?? We are in a very financial position with many new sponsor’s wanting to see the Henley club get back to being a high standard/level club! We will be out there amongst the players and schools in the off-season looking to recruit players to the club that are not getting enough time on court and want the opportunity to change club or believe they have what it takes to be a league player. We have spots open for it and want to hear from any players who would like this opportunity next season. I certainly dont hope that the competition will end up with 4 clubs in the future! I also agree with Hugh on the juniors, the only way is up and we at Henley are working are a## off at the moment on this!!!
It is encouraging that you have mentioned that ‘we’ve already hit the bottom and the only way is up now’. All clubs need to be aware that they need to be part of the solution here. I believe every team needs to have that experience of looking over the precipice into the abyss. I tell you right now that it is at those times that you find out who your true friends are.
Comments from Tom Milenko above are just plain naiivity of the problem that faces the sport in the whole and typical of those clubs that have yet to stare into the gaze of impending doom. South is one of those clubs that could so easiliy slip into the rut if Alex left. We all saw it here when Trish and Rick puled up stumps.
Well, not any more. Henley is in the process of mixing it up a little. We’re getting back to basics and growing the club from the ground up. It will take a couple of years to get back on track and to build our strength. It may mean that we will be finishing in the middle of the pack. We’re changing our junior programme so that it is better than what is out there today. We’re changing our senior programme so that we are going to be on top. No more mucking around. We want talented players for next year and we’re going to do everything in our power to get them. We’ve even extended the olive branch to Austral so that the smaller clubs can work on innovative solutions to our unique problems.
Expect a few rabbits to be pulled out of the hat as we progress through the next two to three years. The volleyball world had better watch out.
BTW, I’m looking forward to having more clubs join the competition in the future. That is still a while away yet. Give it time.
Ian, I have heard rumours that henley is up and running and its good news for all clubs!! And I look forward to you giving the other clubs a run for those finals positions.
As for South falling over if Monkie left, I think you might want to do a bit of research before jumping to conclusions like that. We have a very good support structure as far as committee, coaches, players, sponsors, etc are concerned. Monkie could walk away at any time (as could any of us on the committee) and apart from the inital trouble of a new person taking over and learning the ropes that would happen in any hand over of position the club would not “slip into the rut”. Just do some more research before throwing out claims like that.
The comments from TOMMILENKO are less a naiive stab at Henley and more a frustrated player who has played the game for many many years and wants to see those other clubs develop to a similar standard.
I think we are a LONG way from having other clubs join at this point…