All Flags Premier League Grand Final Captain's Corner I Tim Geers

Before this year, Melville City Hockey Club hadn’t tasted premiership success in the All Flags Premier League, reaching only the one Grand Final in 2016 in the men’s competition, when they suffered a defeat to WASPs.

For Melville star Tim Geers, fulfilling this achievement has always been the ultimate goal, not only for himself but for the club he cherishes so much.

“It would mean a lot to me and the club if we can run away with the victory on Saturday,” Geers says.

“It would mean so much to the club; we’ve been established since 1952 and this would be our first ever All Flags Premier League Grand Final win, so really it’s not just the 16 guys taking the field on Saturday, there’s a lot of people at the club that this would mean a lot to, so we’re going to have that in the back of our minds.”

If there’s any year that Melville is in the box seat to run away with the ultimate glory, it’s this year.

They’ve been the team to beat all season and have sat at the top of the table for the majority of the season and Geers knows that the confidence built from that will put the side in good stead come Saturday.

“We’ve been very consistent this year and had only the one patch there towards the end of the season where we fell off a little bit in terms of our performance on the field,” Geers says.

“We were still playing some really good hockey during that period, so we’re taking a lot of confidence regardless of that; we’ve been strong all year and now there’s just the one game left to prove ourselves on the field.”

The team in Melville’s way to glory is Reds who are coming off a 2020 Grand Final win, inclusion of Kookaburras star Blake Govers and some red-hot form towards the back end of the season, so Geers knows that his side has to be at the top of their game to take home the win on Saturday.

“Obviously we’ve had the week’s break during finals but you can make the case that Reds have had two to three really solid games under their belt heading into the Grand Final,” Geers says.

“We’ve just got to be ready but we’re feeling fresh and feeling confident heading into the game.”

See Melville take on Reds in the men’s All Flags Premier League Grand Final this Saturday 18 September at Perth Hockey Stadium at Curtin University on Hockey WA Grand Final day. Entry is $5 with kids under 18 FREE.