Men's Premier League Season to Date — Camberwell Hockey Club

Season 2020 was shaping up to be a great year. Following the crushing disappointment of the narrowest of Preliminary Finals defeats we had re-grouped, re-assessed and were hungry for success.

A dominant practice result against Doncaster and an arm wrestle tie with Southern left us confidently looking forward to our final practice games and a home round 1 re-match with Doncaster.

On March 18 we received a bump in the road. The escalating COVID-19 crisis forced the club to consider members' safety and reluctantly suspend operations. Training, practice matches and Round 1 were now postponed and our ambitions reined-in, reset and tended as we await a number of resumption scenarios from Hockey Victoria.

tweet covid.jpg — The Club suspended hockey operations on March 18 a few days before Hockey Victoria postponed all competitions

Early Planning

Our Premier League group's 2020 season began six moths ago in October 2019. A season review was conducted with the players submitting feedback through a wide ranging survey. What were our potential issues, our strengths and weaknesses; what were our values, our ethos, our desire?

Late October saw the group gather at Matlock for a presentation. Review 2019, consider our survey response and agree expectation for 2020. On field training would begin after Cup day on November 12. We were ready to commit again, to commit further for another tilt at the premiership.

The word cloud depicts the strong sentiment response from the player survey

Summer training comprises four weekly sessions.

technical skills and match-play on Tuesday evening followed by Strength & Fitness conditioning
structural advancement on Thursday evenings
game based learnings and conditioning early on Saturday mornings

In the early summer leading into Christmas our group are spending up to six contact hours training at Matlock in addition to personal fitness and conditioning.

Following the departure of physiotherapist Alex Mackenzie to London and strength & conditioning coach Rich Callaghan to other duties the group were looking to appoint new staff early in the year.

One of head coach Lachie Anderson's first administrative jobs was to interview a number of candidates for the roles and collaborate on suitable appointments for both the Men's and Women's section.

The Men's and Women's sections were delighted to welcome James McGeoch to the role of Premier League Strength & Fitness coach. James has a masters in S&C and is current head of S&C at Carey Grammar and lecturer of Sports Science at Deakin University.

The Men's section were also extremely fortunate to secure the services of Steph Skaras as MPL Physiotherapist. Steph currently works with Monash Health and has extensive club sport experience in VFA football, soccer and hockey.

January is the one month of the year these days Matlock lies mostly dormant, but Australia Day traditionally heralds the beginning of winter pre-season.

In a quirk of our Matlock lease conditions, winter begins in February!

The second half of the pre-season continues with the four sessions each work, increasing tempo and work rate and the introduction of practice matches against other clubs. February also sees the weekend off-site camp.

Our off-site 3 days camp is self funded by the players and includes extreme fitness sessions delivered by Rich Callaghan. The group additionally review planning & expectations, culture & history and undertake games and activities relating to team bonding and trust.

Following camp, a few more weeks of training and a rest period we were ready for practice games leading into round 1.

A surprisingly large crowd took in the first practice match against Doncaster on a sunny February morning at Matlock. A dominant display took the win but most importantly allowed us to hone our team structure, discipline and control. Off-field our match preparation, analysis and game management was also being locked-in for coach Ando, manager HP, doctor Roy and physio Steph.

Five months in we were poised, preapred and ready for action - and then, following a week of escalating news, suspension of our hockey activities.

Our year had reached the final stage of our preparations and we were eager to start so the disappointment after that work is deep. The current stage 3 restriction, so far 4 weeks of our program, prevent group training and access to Matlock so our training has become virtual.

Virtual Training

Our group is highly committed and aware of personal training requirements and expectations. Training is happening daily alone and in pairs with a Stavka group operating to provide some friendly competitiveness.

We've tailored a custom Strength & Conditioning program and the group have been given a training calendar including the specialised activities and whole of club on-line fitness and pilates sessions.

Our coaching staff and players are in contact using phone, zoom and whats-app; and the players are meeting socially using the Houseparty app.

Injured and unwell players have been recuperating and all are engaged in video and other analysis homework and presentations.

What's Next

We just don't know. Hockey Victoria has announced a number of scenarios for recommencing activities, each of which is effectively based on a given start date.

Optimistically we may see some sort of premier league season and perhaps with a step back to stage 2 restrictions within a month we'll be able to train in our line groups. On the other hand our association could equally be forced to abandon the season. Until that happens though our group are in great shape and will continue to prepare and maintain the hunger to achieve success through relentless team work and commitment.