Illawarra South Coast Men's Grand Final 2025

*Syndicated Article

By Tony de Souza

Albion Park 4 - Wests Illawarra 3

Albion Park have wrested back the region’s hockey title narrowly beating Wests Illawarra 4-3 in a tense Grand Final match of the illawarra South Coast hockey league at Unanderra recently. 

It was an emotional finish for the Park team who lost the title last year and playing without striker Darcey Kast who was handed a three match suspension after receiving a red card in the major semi two weeks ago.

Another emotional loss for Wests losing their third consecutive grand final after taking the early lead and initiative in the game but unable to maintain that momentum when Park’s Brady Anderson sealed the winner in the final minutes of the match.

Kieren Govers, Park coach/captain and former Kookaburra, was excited at the final whistle saying the win meant a lot to himself, the team and the club and has driven the team to succeed even more.

“Beating Wests with 10 players the week before put even more confidence in us,” Govers said, "We stuck to a simple game plan and executed it nicely.”

“Wests have some great individual players, but we knew we just maintained our patience in attack and stopped their counter attacks and we had a good chance of winning.”

Govers now takes over the coaching role of the NSW Pride team in the ongoing Hockey One season. Missing from the Park team was Jack Hayes who had since moved to Perth and is back in the Pride team after missing out last season.

The Devils drew the first blood five minutes into the first quarter when Joel Westblade scored the opening goal after a threatening attack from Jack Rowe earlier.

A minute later Wests’ and NSW Pride player Tom Miotto saw his first penalty corner hit well saved by Park’s Zac Nyrhinen on the line.

Unrattled, the Eagles made it 1-1 when Josh Mayo, back from a calf injury, scored a drag flick from his third penalty corner.

Four minutes into the second quarter Mayo put the Eagles 2-1 ahead from his second drag flick only for Miotto to level scores from his third penalty corner after his second was mistimed in the 10th minute.

Park’s Anderson then received a yellow card from umpire Sharni Barton after a tackle on Wests’s Tom Duncan.

Three minutes into the second half and third quarter the Devils surged ahead 3-2 when a rejuvenated Westblade made it 3-2 connecting a ball from Rowe.

Westblade was on the mark again in this quarter when he saw his high scoop in the circle well saved by the Park custodian Nathan Ackroyd. 

The Eagles came back in the 14th minute when Mayo got his hat trick scoring from another drag flick taking the score to 3-3.

“Josh is a great drag flicker and we missed him in the semi,” Govers added, "He flicked 3 awesome goals which gave us some breathing room and kept us in the match.”

Park went on the offensive in the final quarter when Mayo saw his shot go wide from his sixth penalty corner and Nyrhinen hit the post from the teams final penalty corner.

Brady Anderson sealed the win for the Eagles in the final two minutes of the game when he connected a clever pass from James Murray just outside the circle.

Wests captain Elliot Ashby was devastated with the result saying his team had been the best all year round but couldn’t get it done in the grand final.

In the women’s league Albion Park retained the title beating defending premiers University 2-1 at Unanderra. Kiara Marsh and Emma Mcleish scored for the Park with Georgia O’Grady-Shorten replying for the Students.