The Northland Men's pre-tournament match against Auckland turned into "a bit of shocker" when they went down 10-0. Looking at the upside of a dismal outcome, coach Mike Delaney said he was glad it happened in a pre-tourney hit out rather than at next month's National Hockey League Tournament. "It wasgood to get it out of our system now. We had a few weak spots in our team which Auckland found," he said. Northland struggled from the outset of yesterday's match at ITM Rosvall Stadium, particularly in the midfield, and while the team produced a few promising phases of play which Delaney planned to develop, most areas needed the creases ironed out of them. "We have a less-experienced midfield and Auckland just cut us down. They were well-trained and had been under way training for a while - they looked really organised." The Northland squad have been training for a month, but there have been a lot of comings and goings. North Harbour import Dion Ashton joined the Northland contingent for the clash with Auckland, which was the team's first time playing together. Things could only improve from here, Delaney said. "We will obviously be working on our midfield, but once we have smoothed out our weak spots, we will work on getting a solid defence structure before we can attack."
The coaching staff are trying to organise more matches with various North Harbour club sides, ahead of the Northern Regional tournament preceding the NHL, which hits off on September 11. In Northland premier men's club hockey, top of the table Mangapai and Maungakaramea had a close tussle over the top spot at the turf on Saturday, with finals looming on August 28. Maungakaramea got the better of their rivals, claiming a 3-1 victory, while Bream Bay convincingly defeated the fourth-placed Springfield, 5-1. In the Premier Women's competition, Old Girls showed off their experience when they played Kamo High School, beating them 6-0 and Springfield also had a comprehensive 6-1 win over Whangarei Girls High School, while it was a much closer affair between Hikurangi and Maungakaramea with the teams drawing 1-1 at fulltime.
