Our intention is to take a Men’s and Women’s Opens teams to the Victorian Indoor Opens Div 1 Club Championship.

You are invited to attend. Please complete this form if you wish to do so.

The tournament itself is the Hockey Victoria Div 1 Open Indoor Club State Championships. The participating teams are from the major Victorian clubs and tend to include most of the best Indoor players from the state. The standard is similar to Div 1 at the HNSW State Championships.

We were invited to attend in the previous two years and the teams were set the major objective of playing well, but also ensuring we were excellent ambassadors for MJHC and NSW hockey in general. At the conclusion of the tournament the CEO of Hockey Victoria personally commended the teams for their conduct and told them they’d be welcome back again. This facet is important - we want to play well and succeed in the tournament but more than anything we want to enjoy the experience and ensure we a spreading good hockey vibes when we are there.

The objectives in 2025 remain the same, in order of priority:

·      Celebrate the friendships that are formed through playing hockey together

·      Represent our Club, Association and State well with excellent skills, sportsmanship and team spirit

·      Acheive a quality result in the tournament 

The tournament dates are Friday 31^st January – Sunday 2^nd February

The plan would be to travel to Melbourne on the Friday and return on Monday 3rd.

There will be training at Mosman in the lead up to the tournament.

Accommodation would be at the Village Hostel in North Melbourne, where the teams stayed last year.

The final cost will be in the vicinity of $750 for each player. 

This fee includes:

- Airfares

- Accomodation

- Breakfasts

- Entry and registration fees

- Transfers to and from accommodation, the airport and hockey centre

This does not include:

- Lunches - players can buy their own at the hockey centre

- Dinners- we will order and pay, but charge back to the teams after the event (~$20 p/p for each meal?)

The fee has factored in that the Club will pay the entry fee of $1450 for each team.

This subsidy is partly funded through volunteers who have provided help for the club but taken no payment. We would like the players to commit to providing 3 hours each towards our MJHC programs (coaching, umpiring, volunteering) in return for this subsidy. Please speak to me if possible if you are not willing to make this commitment.

I would also like to discuss with the team options to conduct fundraising to reduce the burden on parents and encourage some accountability on behalf of the players for this expense.

We intend to take two competitive teams. As an opens tournament priority will be given to players 18 years or over.

Previously the tournament has had 5-6 entrants and teams play 6-7 games, with a round-robin format, followed by finals and classification games.

The first game will be Friday night and there will likely be 3 games each on Saturday and Sunday.

Playing on Friday is optional but doing so avoids a punishing draw – so we would prefer to do that.

Players must be registered in the new year with Mosman Hockey. This won’t involve a fee except if you are signing up for the first time in 2025 you will incur the standard HNSW, Hockey Australia and NSB fees. When the chat is set up I will syndicate a link for everyone to do this.  

If you intend to play for other senior clubs or associations during the year discuss with me what you need to do before registering. There won't be any complication with this no matter what you want to do and it will not cost extra.

Hockey Victoria require membership for participants to play at the tournament. The entry fee includes this fee for all players - there is nothing to do for this, I will coordinate it.

The team need to play in complete Mosman playing strip (new version) and the gotcha is that we require numbers for the tournament.

Every player will need Mosman playing socks (blue and white) and the new version of shorts or skort. 

We are looking at supplying numbered singlets and some special merch. These will either be reversible or separate white and blue singlets. I will communicate with the squad about sizes, numbers, etc. once the details have been clarified. It may be possible for players to choose their own numbers.

I need to know who needs to borrow or buy socks, shorts or skorts - last year we managed to get loan uniforms for those who didn’t have the new version.

There are generally no question marks over the conduct and integrity of players in this group.

This year we are having an opens tournament so players will be responsible for their own conduct and decisions.

Primarily the trip is a sporting event and we will prioritise team performance, but we will conclude the tournament with a night out on Sunday to celebrate and unwind.

Spectators

Friends, parents and spectators are welcome but would have to make their own arrangements for accommodation and meals.