Standard disappoints at hockey tourney

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 32

Standard disappoints at hockey tourney

By

KEVIN TUTTY

The Premier Trophy final at the national

women’s hockey tournament at Porritt Park on Saturday was a game to restore faith in the sport.

It was skilful and exciting, but unfortunately it was the only match of the week that achieved the standard expected in the top division.

Neither Auckland nor Canterbury was extended in the pool games and semi-finals and the widening gap between these two teams and the others must be of concern to national administrators, selectors and coaches.

Otago, expected to romp into the semi-finals along with the finalists, faltered in its last pool game, losing unexpectedly to Waikato. It was a lack of discipline in its play that cost Otago a semifinal position and similar faults were prevalent in other teams. Auckland and Canterbury are loaded with New Zealand squad members and the work they have done on their game in the last two years was evident throughout the week.

Lack of artificial surfaces is being used increasingly as an excuse for teams not performing well, but the argument is not plausible. Hawke’s Bay, which finished third in the Premier Trophy section, does not have an artificial surface but sound coaching and fitness enabled it to compete with Auckland and Canterbury.

The Bay has the raw material to improve further, and the incentive, now that it has won a place in the trans-Tasman series March. Wellington was the disappointment of the week. It won selection to the Premier Trophy last year but slipped back again when it was soundly beaten 6-1 by Canterbury B in a promotion-relega-tion game on Saturday. Wellington was the first province to have an artificial surface in New Zealand, but the women’s teams from the province have continued to be mediocre sides, suggesting a lack of development of its younger players. Pat Barwick, the New Zealand coach, believes the time has arrived for regionalisation of some

teams. It would increase the strength of teams in the lower sections and ensure that teams contain players who are prepared to work at their game. “Talking around the ground during the week it was obvious that some teams had players who were only there to fill in the numbers.

“If you had players from two or three regions fighting for places in a team the strength of those teams must improve. It should be easier too, to assist four or five players from a region to national tournament than a whole team.”

While many provinces are struggling to produce competitive teams, Canterbury is being rewarded for concentrated coaching at the under-age levels. The Canterbury B team that performed so creditably contained a number of young players who have been nurtured through provincial under age teams. They will be of considerable value to Canterbury in the years ahead.

Meanwhile the Canterbury A team can analyse its performance in Saturday’s final and plan its strategy for the trans-Tas-man series in March where it will have the chance to avenge its loss to Auckland and test itself against two top Australian state sides.

Canterbury lost on Saturday because it lacked

the same will to win as Auckland. The blue and whites had targeted the final from the start of the season and their theme for the game, said the coach, Barb Mason, was: "No glory without guts.”

In the crucial secondhalf it was Auckland which did the work and Canterbury which could not cope with the pressure. It made basic errors, particularly in the last 15 minutes which prevented it from placing sustained pressure on the Auckland defence.

“Our trapping let us down,” was the succinct comment of the Canterbury coach, Shirley Haig, after the game. Although it missed the coveted Premier Trophy, there was much to admire in Canterbury’s play during the week and it showed in its 7-0 drubbing of Waikato in the semifinal that it has the ability to be a winner in the inaugural trans-Tasman series.