Hockey: Coach can't find satisfaction in win

Central inside forward Dylan Thomas, of Hawke's Bay, scored two goals and set up one but his sending off proved to be costly.Photo/File

It's nowhere near a disaster of the Brazil kind at the Fifa World Cup but the importance of defence isn't lost on hockey coach Dean Hulls.

Hulls, who coaches the Central Districts Under-18 men's team, is tearing his hair out at the nationals in Napier after two losses and a win.

"Our team's set up to attack and it's definitely exciting but it'd be nice to win, too," Hull said.

Central lost 5-3 to Auckland on Sunday and 4-3 to Midlands on Monday, before thrashing Northland 5-2 on Tuesday in their pool A match.

However, Hulls found little satisfaction from their victory.

"It was a bizarre game and the one I enjoyed the least.

"We won but we were a little bit flat," he said of the Northland encounter, adding the agonising loss to Midlands was of a higher quality.

The week-long nationals, which include the women counterparts, has teams from eight regions - Northland, North Harbour, Auckland, Midlands, Central, Capital, Canterbury and Southern.

The results have left Central in third place, playing a crossover match against bottom-half pool A placegetters North Harbour today from 9am at Park Island although Hulls said if persistent rain flooded the turf it might be moved to the international venue at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park in Hastings.

Adding to Hulls' frustration is that Capital, who they beat to the tune of eight goals in a pre-season match, finished runners-up behind Canterbury in pool B.

Midlands topped pool A on 10 points, while Auckland were a point behind and Central third on four points.

"The boys are still learning. We're playing to win but we need to put our foot down for 70 minutes."

Against Auckland, they were 2-0 down but levelled terms 2-2 at halftime before succumbing in a tit-for-tat affair.

"The Auckland front line is quality," he bemoaned, saying Central had more circle chances, penalty corners and shots at goal but technical errors let them down in the transition from attack to defence.

A disallowed goal against Midlands was compounded when Hawke's Bay's Dylan Thomas, an inside forward who scored two goals and set up the other, was sent off for shoving a player.

"If the referees look at it on video, on reflection they may have taken a different view."

Central's Thomas, Hayden Phillips (Horowhenua-Kapiti) and Mack Wilcox (NBHS) are in the NZ Youth Olympics team.

Lee Philips and Joshua Wray (both HBHS) and Sam Hiha and goalkeeper Don Dixon (both NBHS) are the Bay players in the side.

The Jan Dixon-coached Central women U18 team have had a win and two penalty shootout losses in pool A.

They beat Northland 2-1 but 1-1 draws against North Harbour and Auckland saw them lose 4-2 and 3-2, respectively, in the lottery shootout.

"They [penalty takers] can take up to eight seconds by dribbling from the 25 to put it into the net," Dixon said.

Youth Olympian Case-Mae Waddell, of Horowhenua, is in the Central team with sole Bay player Kezia Taylor, of Karamau High School, who has scored two goals.

"Kezia is a midfielder but I'm playing her as a striker because we have too many midfielders," said Dixon, who was losing her voice last night.

She was pleased with her players who were a little on the back foot against Auckland but were improving with each game.

The women play Southern at 9am today and Capital tomorrow.