Hockey: Positive Tauranga 'starting to click'

Tauranga's Matt Pinkerton on the ball in the game against Thames Valley at Tauranga Hockey centre. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

Tauranga's Hatch Cup team had a one win, one loss result at a warm-up tournament at the Tauranga Hockey centre on Sunday.

In their first game, they convincingly beat Thames Valley 8-0, but were on the end of a big score later in the day, going down 10-3 to Auckland.

Coach Phil Pinkerton said the reverse was part of the build-up process.

"The boys played well. It was a good thing for them to learn what the opposition will be like," he said.

Auckland have been among the top teams at recent Hatch Cup tournaments.

"What we got from the weekend is that we can do it. The boys had a good, positive attitude, are keen to learn, and they love the sport. When they played Auckland they were really determined."

Sunday's tournament was the fourth and final one for the Tauranga team after they won the Noel Morrow tournament in Gisborne in July, were fourth from eight teams at the two-day Somerville Cup in Whangarei and drew 1-1 with Waikato, and beat Counties Manukau, another one of the teams in the same pool, 7-3 in Pukekohe last month.

Most team members will be involved in the AIMS Games next week and the team will reconvene for two friendly games against Bay of Plenty and Waikato, before travelling to Timaru for this year's Hatch Cup at the start of October.

"There will be 24 teams and they are the top teams from around the country so we are going to go down there and give it a good shot," said Pinkerton, who is from a hockey playing family and who has been coaching at primary school level for the past five years. It is his first Hatch Cup as a coach.

He is happy with the team's preparation so far.

"We will be working on speed and working on going 100 per cent from the start [of a game] and not take a while to wind up. But the skill levels are good, the concentration is brilliant, and the guys are starting to click."