Family enjoys triple championship joy in Warrnambool District Hockey Association

The 15-year-old joined her mum Lynette Wines’ hockey team, the Submariners, to help the make up numbers for season 2017.

Although reluctant at first, Hannah says she is now in for the long haul.

“I didn’t really like it at first, but then after I started to get into it, I enjoyed it,” she said. “I’m going to do it again next year.”

While the Submariners had been struggling for numbers early, by the end of the season, they were working as a well-oiled machine, taking out the Warrnambool District Hockey Association women’s title for the third year running.

Lynette herself is a rusted-on member of the team now, although she missed last season due to injury.

She joined the club in 2005 when she returned to Warrnambool after stints at Coleraine, Melbourne and in New Zealand, and joined friend Maria O’Rooke at the Submariners.

The two previously played together for Kangas – a team made up of former Warrnambool College students – in the late 1970s.

“She was the only one still around,” Lynette said.

The early years were tough for her Submariners, who struggled for success.

“The first year when I played with Submariners, we didn’t win a game until the last round,” Lynette said.

“It’s taken a long time to come back to the top. (But) we’ve won the last three.”

Their family had another reason to celebrate on the WDHA’s grand final weekend, with son and brother Michael Loughhead part of the men’s grand final-winning Buccaneers.

“To have the opportunity to play with your daughter is pretty special – there’s three mother-daughter combinations in the team,” Lynette said.

“It was a lovely family thing for me (to also have my son win). It was a very memorable occasion.”

Michael was another reluctant starter in the sport, with soccer – he also plays for the Warrnambool Rangers in the Ballarat association – his first sporting priority.

But he has come along in leaps and bounds in recent years and if the September 16 decider was his last hurrah in the sport, he’s happy end with the 2-1 win.

“It was really exciting,” he said. “Especially since last year, we didn’t quite make it to the grand final. We had a pretty good year and a great coach in Chris Ratcliffe.”

Michael said the family was thrilled to celebrate its double grand final success.

“Mum was pretty happy since it’s her sport,” he said with a laugh. “When I took it up at the end of the last season in 2015, she was pretty rapt because I was more of a soccer kid and got roped into it by some friends at school.”