Hume Hockey Club is enjoying the perfect start to Hockey Victoria’s metro men’s competition.
Forming a senior team for the first time, Hume is playing in metro B north-west.
If early signs are an indication, Hume may not be in the bottom grade for long.
The Highlanders followed their season-starting 4-2 defeat of Melton with a 6-0 rout of Essendon on Saturday.
Hume’s Hayden Whitten said that going into its first season, the side was something of an unknown quantity.
“We had five or six players who have played together before,” he said. “They are the core group, which is in our midfield and attacking end. “We didn’t know how everyone else would gel together. The new players have gelled well, which is quite surprising.”
Whitten said the quality of hockey in their division was as they had been expecting.
He said that despite the good start to the season, the Highlanders were staying grounded, with upcoming matches against Altona and Footscray, which both have premier sides, sure to provide a challenge.
Whitten said the club had established a trophy with Melton that would be decided on results between the two sides across the season.
“Melton came to us and said, ‘There’s a lot of rivalries at higher levels, but doesn’t flow into the lower grades’,” he said.
“We play each other three times and the club that wins head to head will win the trophy.”
Whitten said it had been a big couple of months for the club since a local committee took on the running of the club.
The club had previously been under the banner of Craigieburn Hockey Club, but the club had been predominantly run by Hockey Victoria.
The club ran programs in schools, Junior Hookin2Hockey and informal matches in the past three years.
Whitten said players of all ages were wanting to join the club.
He said with more than 20 men now at the club, the Highlanders were having to tell players they wouldn’t be getting a game every week.
The club is based at Newbury Park in Craigieburn, with work on clubrooms recently starting.
