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Two games in the new National Premier Hockey League will be played in Napier as Hawke’s Bay hockey tries to capitalise on a big year.
It comes after a men’s Black Sticks national team camp before the Paris Olympic Games and a revival of the Bay’s fortunes at the national championships.
Members of the Hawke’s Bay men’s team on defensive duties. Nathan Gunson (left), 17-year-old goalkeeper Nick Catley, Noah Sloan, Rohan Fendall and Patrick Crawshaw.
The men’s and women’s matches will be between southern North Island franchise the Falcons and northern side the Tridents at Park Island on November 10 in the second weekend of the four-team, six-week pre-Christmas competition.
While Hawke’s Bay is expected to be well represented in both Falcons teams, the squads have not yet been named. However, the men’s side will be co-coached by Hawke’s Bay mentor Graeme Findlay, who coached the provincial men’s team to within a whisker of success at the national championships in Palmerston North two weeks ago.
Relegated from Tier 2 last year, his team bounced straight back by winning six straight to guarantee promotion to the top division and reach the Tier 2 final, won 3-2 on penalties by Canterbury after a 2-2 draw at the end of regulation time.
Meanwhile, the women’s team bounced back from two early losses in their Tier 1 competition to win four straight, including a 1-0 victory over Otago in the playoff for fifth and sixth.
While the situation was the same for most, the men’s team was unable to call on such players as Black Sticks Sean Findlay, Sam Hiha and Olympic Games goalie Dominic Dixon. Ruled-out of the women’s team were internationals Olivia Shannon and Kaitlin Cotter, now overseas.
Kezia Taylor in the Hawke’s Bay women’s match against Manawatu.
To overcome a dearth of senior goalkeepers in the provinces, Hawke’s Bay had to get men’s tournament age dispensation to put the mask, pads and gloves in the hands of 17-year-old Nick Catley, who played all of the September 15-21 competition except the last few minutes when withdrawn to push an extra man into the attack in the closing stages of the final.
Players are not generally allowed in-goal in the senior tournament if under the age of 18.
The options weren’t vast, with Findlay on the team sheet, at the age of 54, just in case.
The tournament also showed it’s not yet over for now 40-year-old Shea McAleese, who has retired from international hockey, but managed two full games, in which he scored four goals, including three in a 6-4 win over Manawatū.
The men did have 19-year-old pre-Olympics Black Sticks rookie Jonty Elmes, who top-scored with 13 goals for the men – and whose days in the Hawke’s Bay black-and-white are possibly numbered because of the prospect of international opportunities. Appearing for the women’s side was now experienced national representative Hannah Cotter, who scored four of the team’s six goals, before heading back to her base in Melbourne.
The loss of players from Hawke’s Bay was highlighted in the men’s final, with Elmes’ older brother, Luke, in goal for Canterbury B, and three from Hawke’s Bay in the Canterbury women’s side.
Findlay questions whether the format, with the second tier comprising mainly B teams of associations represented in the top tier, is right for national championships and would prefer to see other associations at that level.
But he’s now looking forward to the national league, which has the difficulties of getting players together from a wide area, coaches effectively pooling thoughts and resources in training “hubs”, and the full squads only getting together on match day.
But he said it’s necessary to create an extra level in New Zealand hockey, between the national championships and overseas professional leagues and the international level.
Hawke’s Bay results from the national championships were:
