By Justin Schwarze
Casey Cannons Hockey Club is gearing up ahead of the upcoming season with the club holding its season launch over the weekend.
Over past seasons, the club has seen tremendous growth in its on and off field production.
In 2024, the Cannons came up short in four grand finals, but a lot of their programs – up and down the club – qualified for the postseason.
Ahead of 2025, the club looks to continue to build on that success, and potentially get over the line.
“We’d love to see some premiership flags at the end of this season,” club president Seann Rowland said.
“Last year we had a really successful season, but this year we’re just building on it.
“We’ve entered more teams in our junior and senior division; we’ve got heaps of new coaches, heaps of experience in that coaching, so I think we’re going to see some really good on-field performance.
“We’re looking at building some really good hockey on the field and a really good social side off it.”
The season launch included training sessions for the club’s players of all ages and intra-club matches taking place throughout the day.
“We’re a bigger club, we’ve got heaps of good teams to offer, heaps of really good facilities and we want everyone to get involved,” Rowland said.
As for the club’s goals in 2025, there were many they hoped to address.
Winning, establishing a good culture and bridging the gap between the junior and senior programs were areas highlighted as focal points for the year and beyond.
“Last year we had four teams make it to grand finals and we lost all in shootouts, so it was an exciting year in terms of seeing so much progression and development and I think all the teams have really built on that,” Rowland said.
“Considering we’ve had so many new people, so many transfers in, we’re hoping to see a lot of that success continue and we want to see all of the kids develop and people just enjoying their hockey.”
With exciting growth, the juniors program is as strong as it’s ever been.
For the first time in the club’s history, the Cannons will field teams in the under 12s, 14s and 16s age brackets in both boys and girls hockey.
“Our numbers have just been going through the roof,” junior coordinator Karen Martz said.
“We’ve got a great depth in our coaches and they’re all really focused on developing kids, and they’re really passionate about the sport.
“We’ve just got some amazing depth in our juniors unit and great plans so I think there’s heaps of potential for this club.”
To bring together a club atmosphere, the Cannons implemented a buddy program for the girls in 2024, where senior players mentor some of the juniors and guide them through their hockey journey.
This is part of the club’s aspiration to bring more togetherness and develop cohesion between the senior and junior programs.
“It’s something they can lean on, if they didn’t want to talk to their coach about a specific problem, they can go to their mentor,” women’s coordinator and under 14s coach Emma Harris said.
“It’s just our way of getting them into our senior ranks, making them feel more comfortable and bridging the gap.”
Despite the season still being some time away, the club is focused in its goal to continue to progress and develop in the lead up.
Preseason has begun, and the ramp up in the Cannons’ quest to hoist a premiership after last season’s heartbreak is well and truly underway.
“Everything’s really competitive, even this early with the season so far away, so the signs are really positive,” women’s head coach Andrew Harris said.
“As a coach, it’s great to see that competitive atmosphere at training and no doubt that’ll drive us to improve this year.”
