SUPER EIGHTS - Format change to rev up hockey

A new hockey format called Super Eights could help spice up competition in Northland and the rest of the country in the future.
A new shorter, faster version of the game has been spearheaded by Kerikeri's Bill Fenton, who hopes to showcase the format as soon as possible.
"Cricket has got its Twenty20, rugby has its sevens and we've flirted with this sort of thing before but nothing's ever stuck, so we started thinking about how to change the game and how we can simplify it, make it exciting for the players, while still making it exciting to watch and easy to understand," he said.
Whatever the organiser's hopes for the future of the eight-a-side game, it may be quickly welcomed in Whangarei as a complement to the lengthy and repetitive season that now faces the Northland premier grade teams.
"When you only have enough top players to run four men's teams and they play each other every three weeks it gets a bit ho-hum until the semis and the finals," Fenton said.
He has been talking to a number of self confessed hockey "heads" around the country to gauge what will make the game attractive to players and officials alike.
The shorter game is not meant to replace the 11-player game, but instead could complement competitions like the Northland men's premier grade competition - where teams play each other up to eight times in a season - by shortening the club-based competition.
"You could play it at the weekend or even midweek or you could even get away from the club thing entirely ... eventually you could hold a national competition and have a finals weekend," he said.
He said the idea would be great for weekend tournaments with 12.5 minute halves allowing teams to play several games in a day.
Fenton, who is better know as an umpire in Whangarei, was an Auckland representative player in the 1960s and then went on to be president of the Auckland Association before moving to Northland eight years ago.
In 1993 he trialled matches without offsides in Auckland that were so successful that the rule change went on to be picked up by New Zealand and by the international body in 1996.
The game was to be showcased this Sunday with both Auckland and North Harbour mens NHL training squads due to visit Whangarei. But with Auckland playing a double-header club competition this weekend, they had to pull out and North Harbour and Northland decided to play a more conventional game instead.
Fenton, who has been heavily involved in setting up the country's 57th hockey turf in Kaikohe, said the Far North District Council had agreed to underwrite prize money of $20,000 for a tournament to be held early next year and the Super Eight format could be perfect for that.