HOCKEY - Old and wise, they're back

IT'S BACK TO the future for Northland's under-15 girls' national champion hockey team as they prepare to join a new age.
The team are now a year older but because of a change in Hockey New Zealand strategy, the same team will compete at the under-16 national championships this year. Not only does it give the team a unique chance to defend their title, it also makes them the team to beat at the championships in Christchurch starting on July 14.
"We've already noticed in the warm-up games that teams seem to come out a lot stronger when they are playing us this year; I think we enjoyed being the dark horse at the competition last year," co-coach Meredith McInnes said.
The side completed their preparations for the tournament with two wins on Sunday, beating Waikato 5-1 and Counties-Manukau 4-1.
After being beaten by Auckland in the final of the Queen's Birthday tournament, they are targeting them and hosts Canterbury as the toughest teams to play.
The under-16 boys' team has a different challenge after they were relegated last year.
They now have the opportunity to redeem themselves and gain promotion back into the elite competition by reaching the final of their competition in Rotorua.
Coach Richard Storey said promotion looked promising after some good pre-season form.
"We didn't start off too well but then we beat North Harbour A 2-0 and we've been on a roll ever since."
He said the confidence of the team had been high since the win and they had challenged every team they had played, including a valuable 2-2 draw with Tauranga.
"I'll be disappointed if we don't make the final but I suppose making the semifinals would be a pass mark for the tournament," he said.
On Sunday, the team went down 1-3 to Waikato and then lost 4-5 to Counties-Manukau in a thriller.
While the change in the age-group competitions has delighted the under-16 coaches, the Northland under-18 coaches are less than impressed.
"There's a smaller range of players to choose from because the national association, in their wisdom, decided to change the age-groups from under-15s to under-16s.
"That means that instead of a three-year band to choose from, the sides now only have a two-year band so there will be some big scores at the tournament as a result," Grant McLeod, coach of the girls' under-18 team, predicted.
The team is in a tough pool that includes Canterbury, Manawatu and Counties-Manukau and the girls need to beat two teams to progress to the quarterfinals.
"Our target is the top eight and once we're there anything can happen," McLeod added.
Hitting the ground running will be the under-18 boys team's aim in their tournament in Hamilton, coach Bevan Gibbs said.
"We've got Manawatu first and like any tournament, if you win the first game it makes things a lot easier and that's really been our focus in the lead-up to this tournament."
"Who knows how strong Manawatu are? They're a university town and they might have several first year university students, I mean it's unlikely but you never know ... I tried to sneak a video of them training up here but that hasn't worked out," he joked.
The boys' team also starts their competition on Monday next week.