HOCKEY - Tourney war offers Northland sides hope

Northland hockey trainspotters are hoping a return to the old tournament-style format will be a positive portent when the National Hockey League (NHL) kicks off in Auckland on Friday.
The home-and-away NHL has been dumped for a return to a one venue, 10-day tournament, a format last used in 1999. The Northland men caused a boilover to win the Challenge Shield final in 1996, and haven't come close since.
The switch back to tournament style is meant to be a stop-gap measure in Olympic year, but it is a format that obviously agrees with Northland hockey.
Since 1999 Northland men have been struggling and forced to play second fiddle to an over-achieving women's side.
Massive personnel changes in the wake of defections mean Northland teams are heading to this year's NHL with similar underdog status.
Despite losing nine players from the team that made the semifinals last year, Northland women are still being touted as a force to be reckoned with.
They boast one of the top goal scorers of last year's competition in Anna Thorpe, one of the leading midfielders in Laura Douglas and young Black Stick Jasmin McQuinn, who was robbed of a trip to Beijing by an untimely knee injury. So they have some star quality.
But the trio will be forced to take extra responsibility in a team that includes exciting secondary school prospects Jacinda and Jade McLeod, Alyx Pivac, Hannah Nink and Anna Weir.
The youth of the team, including the acquisition of exciting Auckland junior Danielle Jones as a guest player, gives coach Grant McLeod some hope that the team's fitness will give it impetus at the tournament.
"One of the bonuses to having such a young squad is that they're used to playing tournaments day in and day out, whereas some of the other teams will have players that haven't done that for four or fives years, so that could be a bonus for us," McLeod said.
"I think it will be an NHL of attrition and there will be injuries but only time will tell how we'll end up in that war."
Northland men's coach Pat Barry has assembled what he regards as a "rogue" team that he is certain have the ability to get off the bottom of the NHL table - a position that Northland have occupied in the past two years.
There is a quiet air of confidence in the Northland camp going into tournament that has been preceded by some good performances and some poor ones, with consistency certain to be a telling factor at the tournament.
"We're quietly confident we're going to do pretty well at tournament, we're certainly playing well enough," Barry said.
"We need to just hold it together when the pressure's on.
"We're probably guilty of over-analysing things at the moment.
"In the end it will come down to consistency of the basic skills - the boys understand the game, they've done the conditioning, we're as ready as we can be," he said.