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21.06.2019, 11:00
VOC complete hat-trick of Dutch titles
STORY OF THE SEASON - NETHERLANDS: The Amsterdam-based club won their third straight championship as one of their main rivals, Dalfsen, will not return to the league next season |
VOC complete hat-trick of Dutch titles
The end to the 2018/19 season was business as usual for Rachel de Haze: the captain and left back from Otto Work Force/VOC Amsterdam appeared in the play-off series for the Dutch ‘Eredivisie’ championship for a seventh straight season.
And for a third consecutive year, De Haze and VOC won the title, this time by beating HV Quintus 23:20 at home, and 27:22 away the following week.
The 28-year-old De Haze has completed her 10th season in the VOC jersey. Widely regarded as one of the best Dutch players on her position, De Haze has never made the move abroad, although she spent a test period with SG BBM Bietigheim in Germany last season. This lack of international experience has prevented her from becoming a regular in the Dutch national team.
In an interview with Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, De Haze once revealed that “everything has to fall into place” for her in order to move to another club. “The club has to be nice. The city has to be nice. The handball has to be nice. If I don’t enjoy myself, I don’t play well,” said De Haze, who works as a municipal officer in daily life.
De Haze has been instrumental to VOC’s rise to the top. The club has now won six national titles, though some argue that this number should be seven, as one of the clubs which later merged into VOC, De Volewijckers, also won the title once, in 2000.
While VOC beat Quintus to the title this year, they had defeated Dalfsen in the play-off series of the previous two seasons. Dalfsen have dominated the Dutch women’s league for a long time with six straight titles since 2011, but the club finished only fourth this time and will not play in the Eredivisie at all next season.
The foundation behind the professionalization of the club has ended its activities and the club has handed in its Eredivisie license. There were no financial issues but the foundation was just not able anymore to attract enough young talents to help the club stay in the top of the Eredivisie and play for the title each season.
Even in their teenage years, more and more Dutch players rather want to join a foreign club than play in the domestic league. This development is especially affecting a club like Dalfsen, which is situated in the eastern part of the country, close to the border with Germany.
TEXT: Eric Willemsen / EHF
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