Hockey ends on high

Wellington Pride skipper Rebecca Mahoney says her team shouldn't be judged solely on their 34-8 loss to the Auckland Storm in the grand final of the NPC women's rugby competition in Hamilton last Saturday.

Rather Mahoney, from Eketahuna, believes they deserve recognition for making it that far after not winning a game in 2010.

"We've had an awesome season, way above what most people could have expected," Mahoney said. "Had anybody said early on we would thump teams like Canterbury and be runners-up they would have been laughed at."

Mahoney considers the final scoreline in the final didn't do Wellington justice either as they had competed strongly for the most part.

"The problem for us was that we didn't get enough quality ball to give the outside backs a chance to really take them (Auckland) on but we never gave up."

Mahoney is "hopeful but not too hopeful" of retaining her place in the Black Fern squad for a three-test series against England and is adamant that other Eketahuna players in Shakira Baker, Maia Tua-Davidson, Shaan Waru and Emma Aldworth all deserve serious consideration as well.

Baker and Tua-Davidson were the big individual winners when the Eketahuna team held their presentation function, Baker being named Player of the Year and Tua-Davidson Player's Player of the Year. It was a huge 2011 season for Eketahuna which won both the main championship and first round trophies in the Wellington premier division competition.