A mountain of work over the past few years to rebuild the Melton senior program has paid off.
Both the Mustangs’ Hockey Victoria Vic League 3 men’s and women’s sides will face off in preliminary finals this weekend.
President Matthew Simpson said in his time at the club, he can’t recall both of their senior sides both being this deep in the season.
“We’ve had some luck and it’s awesome,” he said. “It’s really good to see the women’s build up and make it this far.
“This has been 14 years in the making for our women’s side and a long, long time since we’ve had both sides in preliminary finals.
“It’s been over 10 years.”
Simpson said the vibe around the club had been really good and everyone was super excited to see what they could all achieve.
The women’s side will face Eastern Christian Hockey Organisation in a preliminary final on Saturday afternoon. Frankston awaits the winner in the grand final.
It will be a local derby for the men as they take on Caroline Springs also on Saturday afternoon. Greater Dandenong is already through to the grand final.
Simpson said there were a lot of juniors in both senior programs
“We’ve got players from under-12s and under-14s in our women’s side in their first season in juniors,” he said.
“We’ve got young men coming through. It’s our youngest Vic League sides we’ve had for both sides.
“We’ve been trying to work towards this and have a good pathway for the kids. This is how we can keep them.”
Simpson said if both sides were to make the grand final it would be a reward for effort and would hopefully bring more people into the club.
He said their junior program was looking strong with 26 to 28 players named in teams for the junior championships. The under-18 championships will be the last of those events in the next school holidays.
It’s the most the club has ever had.
The Mustangs under-12 girls and boys sides both play in grand finals on Saturday.
Numbers are increasing at the club, with Melton council starting work on a second pitch at the Bridge Road complex.
Simpson said they were starting to run out of space which showed the good work they had been doing was starting to work.
