Dalefield skipper confident

Dalefield skipper Janeen Bruce gives her team a realistic chance of beating Eastern Hutt in the grand final of the Wellington premier division women's hockey competition to be played at the National Hockey Stadium in Wellington on Saturday afternoon.
And Bruce should know, for she was part of the two previous Dalefield teams who have won the premier division title, the first in 2002 and the second in 2004.
Bruce sees the current line-up as being every bit as strong as either of those sides and believes they only have to play to their potential to defeat an Eastern Hutt side which has a New Zealand rep in goal and a bevy of top provincial players.
This despite the fact that after Dalefield had beaten Eastern Hutt 2-1 in their opening encounter this season Eastern Hutt struck back with a vengeance, winning their second round match 7-1.
Bruce said that defeat could be attributed more to Dalefield having an off day than Eastern Hutt outclassing them.
"It was a bit of a wake up call for us," she said. "We were just going through the motions and they made us pay big time."
Bruce considers that loss has had a big part to play in Dalefield bouncing back, to register four wins and four draws in their next eight games, and qualify as top seeds for last weekend's semi-finals where they edged out Indians 3-2.
"It showed us what could happen if the concentration wasn't spot on and since then we've had little trouble in that respect," she said.
Considering they scored seven goals in that second round match, it is interesting that Bruce actually regards their defence as Eastern Hutt's greatest strength. She rates their goalkeeper and fullbacks highly, and accepts that the Dalefield forwards will have to be right on their game to get the better of them.
"We do have a lot of players in our team though who are capable of scoring goals, and than can be a big plus in a match like this," she said. "If they try and mark a couple of our players out of the game hopefully others will step up and do the job for us."
Bruce has confidence too in the Dalefield defence keeping the Eastern Hutt forwards under wraps. She has been delighted with the progress made by young goalkeeper Sarah Crowfoot, who turned 16 on the day of the semi-final win, and by young halves like Wendy Hull, Taasha Henson and Sophie Wickens.
"I guess we don't have a lot of experience there but these youngsters are good?.very good," she said. "They won't be overawed, I'm sure of that."
Fitness is one area of the match where Bruce sees Dalefield as having a possible advantage and consequently their tactics will probably revolve around quick movement of the ball.
"The faster the pace of the game the more it should suit us," she said. "We are strong in the fitness department and need to make the most of it."
The Dalefield-Eastern Hutt match is scheduled to start at 2.40pm on Saturday and will be followed by the men's premier division final between Indians and Harbour City-Tawa.
COLLEGE GRADES
Further good news for Wairarapa hockey is the domination of the Wellington premier grade secondary schools competitions by Wairarapa College teams.
Both their boys and girls sides have gone through their first 10 games undefeated with the boys leading their points table by 9pts and the girls by 6pts.
The goals for and goals against makes staggering reading with the boys having scored 54 goals while conceding just six and the girls scoring 46 goals while conceding only seven.
Detailed results so far this season:-
BOYS: beat Tawa 5-0, beat Kuranui 4-0, beat Rongotai 5-1, beat Hutt Valley 5-1, beat HIBS 4-1, beat Rathkeale 8-1, beat Wellington College 3-2, beat Kuranui Combined 14-0, beat Hutt Valley 2-0, beat HIBS 4-1.
GIRLS: beat Wellington East 3-2, beat Wellington Girls 6-0, beat Chilton St James 5-0, beat Paraparaumu 7-1,beat Kuranui 3-0, beat Samuel Marsden 2-0, beat St Matthews 1-0, beat Wellington Girls 8-0, beat Chilton St James 5-0, beat Paraparaumu 6-1,
The full points tables are, in order of games played, games won, games drawn, games lost, goals for, goals against and total points:-
BOYS: Wairarapa College 10, 10, 0, 0, 54, 6, 30; Wellington College 9, 7, 0, 2, 39, 12, 21; Tawa 9, 7, 0, 2, 37, 15, 21; Rathkeale 9, 4, 1, 4, 18, 34, 13; Rongotai 10, 4, 0, 6, 17, 27, 12; HIBS 10, 2, 1, 7, 6, 24, 7; Hutt Valley 10, 2, 0, 8, 17, 30, 6; Kuranui Combined 9, 1, 0, 8, 6, 46, 3.
GIRLS: Wairarapa College 10, 10, 0, 0, 46, 7 30; Wellington East 10, 8, 0, 2, 41, 7, 24; St Matthews 9, 7, 0, 2, 31, 12, 21; Samuel Marsden 10, 5, 0, 5, 15, 20, 15; Paraparaumu 10, 3, 1, 6, 18, 42, 10; Chilton St James 10, 3, 0, 7, 15, 31, 9; Wellington Girls 10, 2, 1, 7, 8, 21, 7; Kuranui 10, 0, 0, 10, 4, 38,
The Wairarapa College girls team, coached by Lance Hare and managed by Julie Booth, will now go forward to their Federation Cup national tournament in Napier next week with high hopes of emulating their success of last season.They have an excellent record in this event which attracts the top 16 secondary school teams in the country, having won the title in 1992, 1995 and 2005 and finishing runners-up in 2000.