TARANAKI HOCKEY
Strategic Plan | Board Nomination Form | THF Budget 2010 | Audit Report 2009 | Annual Report 2009 | Notice of Annual General Meeting 2010

8 June 2007

U18 Boys Quad Report from Queens Birthday Weekend

The Taranaki Under 18 Mens Team attended a quad tournament in Wellington over Queens Birthday weekend as their last warm up prior to National Under 18 tournament in the first week of July. Due to a mixup in the draw Taranaki ended up playing two games on Saturday and two on Sunday, while most of the other teams only played 2 or3 games. This certainly showed in the results as Taranaki ended up with only 11 uninjured players for both of Sunday games. The Taranaki team played Wellington first up, and after defending well and keeping Wellington to 0-0 at half time, seemed to lose their way as the NZ Academy players stepped up for Wellington. Through skill and superior fitness Wellington poured on a goal scoring frenzy eventually winning 11-0. Aaron Edmunds had an outstanding first half as did Neil Sandford for Taranaki, and the team was very disappointed in how their game fell away in the second half allowing Wellington to dominate. Saturday afternoon saw Taranaki meeting Hawkes Bay, and after defeating Hawkes Bay at the last tournament Taranaki were confident they could do the same this time. Hawkes Bay were not going to let it happen again, and with their Central Under 21 players back for this tournament were stronger and faster. The final result was a 4-2 win to Hawkes Bay. For Taranaki Rakesh Desai and Aaron Edmunds played well. Sunday morning saw us only being able to field 11 fit players against Wanganui, and with players having to be in unfamiliar positions Wanganui managed to score 4 goals in as many minutes in the first half to take a 4-0 lead at half time. A couple of key changes saw Brett Thomas move into Centre Forward and start to dominate the Wanganui defence. Scoring a hat trick was not enough though as the final score was 7-3 in favour of Wanganui. The last game was against a Manawatu side that had only played one game on Saturday morning, and with a full squad against our 11 man fatigue side Taranaki had their backs against the wall. Some early game nerves and terrible passes out of defence saw Manawatu go 3-0 within the first 10 minutes of the game. The taranaki team played their best hockey of the tournament with some great passing and interaction between the front runners and mid field, but with the opposition being fitter and with 5 fit reserves, the Taranaki team just ran out of puff. Taranaki scored through a great individual effort by James Linehan and Brett Thomas struck again. For Taranaki to do well at National Under 18 in Christchurch from 2-7 July, they will need to work well as a team and target specific games. To place better than the 12th they got in 2006 Taranaki must get at least 3rd in their pool, and with regular top 8 teams Auckland and Northland in the same pool, Taranaki need to target wins against Hawkes Bay and Southland. Marion Webby

Back to news

click here for latest news