Whanganui sport: Football, hockey netball

Whanganui Athletic's Tesco Grunwald. Photo / Lewis Gardner

GJ Gardner Whanganui Athletic first team coach Tex von Kwiatkowski wants his side to play with the confidence and intent of a top-of-the-table side as they approach the closing stages of their season.

His side takes on Breakers Red Sox, which it defeated 1-nil in the first round of the season. Red Sox have had a mixed bag of results and sit mid-table heading into Saturday's clash.

"The problem with us is I can clearly see that some of our players are struggling a little to deal with the pressure," von Kwiatkowski said.

"There are a few key players in a dark, deep valley performance-wise. If you have to deal with that, it doesn't help you."

Despite largely controlling and dominating large patches of last week's clash with North End, the side limped to a 3-2 victory in what von Kwiatkowski called their weakest performance of the season.

Von Kwiatkowski wants his side to go back to the reason they play the game - to have fun.

"We need to get back to playing fun football. When I say fun football, that means everyone goes on the park and has fun and gets rid of the pressure on their shoulders."

With the team sitting top of the table with five games remaining in the season, von Kwiatkowski said getting a good result this weekend is crucial as it faces the three teams immediately behind it on the table in the closing weeks of the season.

"What I need to do is a lot of psychology. In our team talk we will have 15 minutes where I will try to implement some different thinking.

"If we can't do that against Red Sox, we will struggle with the top three sides."

After beating Red Sox 1-nil in the first round of the season, von Kwiatkowski wants his side to build on that performance and show the quality it is capable of.

"It's important we go on to the park with this prominent will: we win every ball. Every 50/50 we win it. From then on, we need to play a little more."

In the curtain-raiser, Versatile Wanganui City, currently second in the YORB Horizons Premiership, take on third-placed Whanganui Athletic Reserves in what will be a fiercely fought derby to see who takes over control of the league.

The only two Whanganui sides in the competition have been standouts in 2020, with City losing only one game this season and Athletic riding into the game with a seven-match winning streak after early-season struggles.

Reserves coach Adam Tipper said this weekend's game is crucial, with a loss putting his side seven points behind City and possibly out of title contention.

"They are going in as the top team and we are going in as the underdogs so they have it all to play for. We know how they play; they are going to be aggressive and in our faces so we have to deal with that."

As winners of the last seven games after a slow start to the 2020 campaign, Tipper said, there has been a lot of growth in the squad.

"There has been quite a bit change when you think of how a lot of our young players have developed and they get more and more mature by the day. A little bit more understanding of how we play our system. It's starting to work well."

After losing 4-1 to City in the first fixture, Tipper said: "We have to go out there and be more aggressive. We were a bit too weak and stood off too much in the first game. We let them play too much in the middle of the park and that really cost us.

"Just keep the ball on the deck and play the football we have been playing the last couple of weeks."

City coach Kelvin Francis said derby day was always special.

"It's all about bragging rights so it is a big game. It's probably the biggest game of the year to be honest. We're looking forward to the match. We've had a real s*** month actually. We played last week and we got a good result but before that we hadn't played for three weeks."

With Wembley Park fields closed and unable to get indoors, Francis said his side had missed out on training on Thursday night so had trained only once this week.

"But, in saying that, we played some good football on the weekend and we're looking to take that into this weekend."

Although City have a full squad, they will be missing some experience on the park with three key players out injured or recovering.

Francis said City had taken its opportunities in the first-round game against Athletic and that would be the key again in today's match.

"We're going to continue to look at just try to play attacking football. You walk onto the pitch and you take your game to the opposition so it'll be no different on Saturday. I think it's going to be tighter than some people expect actually. It's about knuckling down and working hard."

Hockey

The Wanganui men's hockey team plays Massey University Hockey Club premiers in Palmerston North at 3.30pm today.

It's the first game in the second round of the Manawatū Premier A Hockey League.

Last week all teams had a bye and player/coach Craig Ritani said the week off had given the team a chance to refresh.

"We had a good training on Thursday and we're looking forward to the challenge.

"We lost 4-2 last time we played them but it was a pretty even game.

"The big thing for us is the Covid rules around hockey. We have to meet as a team and enter as a team 20 minutes before the game."

Covid-19 alert level 2 rules mean no spectators are allowed and there is controlled access for teams which must assemble and enter the venue together as a group, and maintain social distancing as much as possible off the field.

Netball

It's semi-finals time this Monday in the Netball Whanganui Premier A competition, with experience versus youth in one game and the other featuring two teams who had the match of the night in last week's round.

Whanganui High School Old Girls, which led the competition coming into the semi-finals, face off against their younger counterparts, Phillips Electrical Whanganui High School A1. The youngsters had a strong showing against fellow school team Nga Tawa last week, maintaining intensity for the full 60 minutes despite multiple on-court changes. Meanwhile Old Girls, despite a convincing win over Thompson Plumbing & Gas Kaierau A2 last week, had a higher than usual error rate in the first two quarters and some "fine tuning" to do before the semi-final.

In the second semi-final, Kaiwhaiki A1 meet Whanganui Car Centre Kaierau A1 in what promises to be a close contest. In last week's match-up between the teams, Kaierau A1 started strongly but inconsistency in their play allowed Kaiwhaiki A1 to lead for most of the game. There were tense moments in the final quarter as a five-goal lead for Kaierau turned into just a two-goal lead at the final whistle, Kaierau A1 winning 47-45.

Nga Tawa and Kaierau A2 will play off for fifth and sixth spots in the competition.

All games can be viewed live via Netball Whanganui's Facebook page.