The top sides in Griffith Hockey will fight it out this weekend with the grand finals in the men’s and women’s hockey being played out at West End Oval on Saturday.
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Victoria Hotel and Exies will go head-to-head in the women’s decider while Exies will face off against the Leeton Devils in the men’s.
The women’s game should be a close encounter if the previous meetings between the two sides are anything to go by.
With the exception of the semi-final between the sides, the meeting in the regular season was split at two wins each.
Easts captain Fiona McKenzie has been happy with how the season has gone.
“Have played some awesome games and also some average ones,” she said.
“Overall we’re minor premiers for the second year in a row, and that’s a great achievement.”
With Easts advancing straight through to the grand final after a win in the semifinals McKenzie knows her side will need to switch on quickly.
“After having the weekend off it’ll be making sure we don’t skip a beat and play as we have been,” she said.
“We know that Vic will come out strong.”
Victoria Hotel’s team manager, Louise McGrail, said her side’s success is coming from a good mixture of experienced players who enjoy the game and fast young players.
McGrail pointed to newcomer Brittany Mayo as the one to watch this weekend.
It is a similar story in the men’s game with their being little to separate the sides with Easts holding a 3-2 advantage over Leeton the other encounter finishing in a draw.
According to Easts coach Kym Ramsey finding consistency this season has been the main issue.
“ We have played some good and some not so good hockey over the year, with consistency being our main weakness,” he said.
“When we get it together though, we can play well as a team. Our team play and passing is our biggest strength when we can put it together it can be very dangerous.”
Leeton has taken the long road to get into the grand final after finishing third at the end of the regular season. Captain David Tiffin said his team had come together after two season-ending injuries.
“The loss of Haydn Pascoe and Mat Axtill to injury has forced us to play smarter and galvanised the team,” he said.
“The key for us is taking that half-chance, our season was defined by creating and not converting. We had very few chances last week against the number one team but managed to get one in for the win.”
The women’s game will get underway at 1.30pm with the men’s to follow at 3.05pm.