Squad (Goals): Dhiren Keshaw (1), Maurice Malloch, Graeme Moscrip, David Plaistowe, Joseph Plaistowe, Callum Puddle, Daimon Puddle, Titus Sim (2), Kieran Smith (1), Dilip Sukha, Daniel Twine (2), Graham Wessels (8), Tony Wrigley, Jimmy Austin, Marco Beresford (1), Tobin Blathwayt (1), Shea Corrigan-McKay (3), Eddie Earlly, Tomas Gustafson, Tom Hilton (3), and Rhys Johns (7)

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Coach: Tobin Blathwayt

Manager: Tom Hilton

Captain: Graeme Moscrip

Final Result: 13th Place

 

ABC Maroon in 2023 was a mix of young and "experienced" players. We started off the season with a bang, winning our first game 5-0 against one of the stronger teams of the competition. We struggled for the duration of the season with getting a consistent line-up due to illness and injury which did impede our ability to gel during the middle of the season. However, that did not stop the team from registering some incredible results, the most notable of all being a come from behind win against our clubmates from ABC Yellow.

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Rounding to the end of the round robin play, the team pushed to make the top eight but after a couple of disappointing but close results, we set our sights on making the top eight by winning all our Bottom Eight Pool C matches. Unfortunately, we drew two and lost one, putting us up against HDF Maroon to fight for a place in the Bowl Final. After an amazing win, the team had one final mission, to beat ABC Black. A real arm-wrestle later, we won to hoist the Bowl above our heads.

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All games this season were played with good spirit and with a never give up attitude. The goal for the season was to play good, respectful hockey and I believe we did that. There was a good mix of calm heads and frantic feet.

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The awards for this year (MVP, Most Improved and Best Teammate) were voted for by all the players and it was so close, it was even suggested by Tobin to implement "strategic voting". But it showed that every player in the team had a role, one that the team would be lost without.  MVP Graham Wessels; Most Improved Callum Puddle; Best Team Mate Grip, Tom Hilton.

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Thank you so much to Tobin for coaching the team this season. He brought a new structure to play with this season with two pivoting players in the middle rather than the conventional centre midfielder which gave us great strength up the middle of the field. And who can forget the start of play where all 10 players started on the halfway line.

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A big thank you to all the players from other D2 teams that often doubled up on games to help us out. It definitely saved us at the best of times.

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Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable season with a great bunch of guys that I hope to see again next season!

Tom Hilton

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2022 Season Round Up

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A demographically challenged team that developed hugely in the year from a very slow start to a powerful finish saw the three year 10s, three year 11s, two year 12s develop hugely.

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There were a number of family combinations with Jon and Alex Sim, Tobin and Tom Blathwayt joined by new players Todd and (nephew) Ben Huntington and Aaron and Joe Croll. 

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The team took some time to gel.  Consistency of selection was a particular challenge early in the season and we lost our first seven games conceding 42 goals, then we effected a very strong turnaround winning five (including the Grand Final runner up), drawing four and losing two of our last eleven games, being undefeated in the last six.   Regrettably our run was too little too late to make finals day.

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The team was a happy team and it was particularly nice to welcome new members to the club: as well as the Crolls and Huntingtons; Tom Hilton, Neo Tunnicliffe, Toby Foster and Tom Darby made their adult debuts for ABC.  Wayne Highet, Glenn Gilbert and Noel Hensman provided some grey hairs to the team and we were fortunate enough to be able to call upon Tristan Rudden, Ethan Lewis, Rhys Johns and Tom Blathwayt when work and other commitments permitted.  Sadly, Dhiren’s season was interrupted by a long concussion.  Danny Mac and Ollie Dellabarca returned and were stronger with a second season of club under their belts. This gave us some physical presence.  Our goalkeepers, James West, Terry Surgue and Andrew Holt, were busy and effective, and halfway through the season we managed to get an appropriate balance of youth and experience in our key positions.

 

The Maroon Stick was hotly contested with the lead changing hands from time to time. Rhys and Tristan led the way with six goals each followed by Ethan with five.  Aaron scored four, Tobin and Glenn two each and Ollie and Dominic Holt scored one.

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Inevitably we will lose some of our youth to P3 or D1 next year and hopefully we can maintain a strong core and build on the momentum from the second half of the season.

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2021 Season Round Up

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ABC Maroon in 2021 was a blend of older stalwarts of the club and a large contingent of young adults.

The general play style throughout the season was in essence semi organised chaos.

We used the pace and aggressive line speed of our midfield/forwards to punch through and crash onto the D with 2-3 players and use the incredible finishing abilities of Ronell Hensman and Ethan Lewis to rack in 21 goals between them throughout the season.
 

We started in the practice games by rolling the other two Div 2 teams in the local derbies through sheer speed and never letting the backs breath by marking aggressively and closing space quickly.

However when we started the comp games we started off facing all the top teams in the grade. The lack of organised midfield/strong structure in our team started to show in these games with organised teams like NSU and Taka Black taking wins through incredibly strict structure and taking advantage of our aggressive play.

In the latter part of the first round we started finding our feet playing all the bottom teams in a row with a string of victories where we would win by 3+ goals and add to our goal count significantly.

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We played solid hockey in the 2nd half with many wins due to our placing in the bottom half and finished the season by having fun scoring goals without any stress to compete for the top spots.

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In goal we had Terry Sugrue and Andrew Holt who swapped around depending on schedules and had some good saves throughout the season.

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Our stalwarts of the team Chris Badenhorst and Wayne Highet marshalled the defense guiding Alex Blair and JP Badenhorst throughout the season with all 4 showing incredible commitment to saving goals and keeping us in the games.

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Our Midfield changed forms throughout the season from a single centre half manned by Noel Hensman who volunteered from the forwards to the killer double centre half combo of Nathan Sinclair/Dhiren Keshaw who played further back and Ethan Lewis/Ronell Hensman who played as more aggressive halves. Our outside halves were brilliant in Renier Lategan, Graham Thomson, Glenn Gilbert and Neeson Naidoo and set up many brilliant plays throughout the season.

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The Inners did a brilliant job of setting up our stellar forwards with Finbar Hoyte, Ethan Munro-Scown and Bradley Bycroft doing the mileage and instigating the killer punches through the midfield to give the forwards all the chances they would need to rack up the goals.

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Throughout the season the Forwards were absolutely dynamite racking up 37 goals and missing out on the big 40 due to the lockdown. Ethan Lewis and his unreal speed/skill managed to get him 10 goals for Maroon and 4 for Yellow. Ronell Hensman and his cheeky poaches took him to 11 goals with one or two poached from Noel Hensman. Derrec Grant had some huge hits throughout the season despite missing a fair few open goals, however his positioning and physicality assisted the team greatly.

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Throughout the season the team culture was excellent with constant banter and everyone always having fun despite being in the bottom half. It was an absolute ball and we all believe we had way more fun than any other team in the grade.

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Special thanks to Div 2 Black for reinforcing the ranks and contributing to the good laughs.

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2020 Season Round Up

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This season ABC ran three Division 2 teams which meant that we were the only club with eight men’s teams.  In selecting the teams, we endeavoured to pick three teams that would be competitive so that all could enjoy the season.We welcomed nine new players to adult hockey   Later in the season we introduced former youth players Alex Blair and Renier Latigan into the team for a non-comp game and it is likely that they will play adult hockey next year.  

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Overall we won five and lost five which was a pretty fair reflection of where we stood in the grade.

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Pool play

21 Jun - Takapuna TItans 2-1 Ronell Hensman, Tobin Blathwayt

27 Jun - NSU Red 1-3 Louie Lawton

4 Jul - Glenfield Old Boys 5-3 Louie Lawton (2), Derrec Grant, Oscar Dorbeck, Tom Blathwayt

11 Jul - ABC Yellow 1-9 Oscar Dorbeck

18 Jul - NSU Blue 1-5 Tobin Blathwayt

25 Jul - HDF 0-1

1 Aug - Takanpuna Black  1-10 Finbar Hoyte

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Finals hockey

26 Sep - NHI Tigers 4-1  Louie Lawton (2), Derrec Grant, Ronell Hensman

3 Oct - ABC Yellow 3-3 Derrec Grant, Tobin Blathwayt, Louie Lawton (won 2-1 shoot out: Oscar Dorbeck, Derrec Grant)

17 Oct - ABC Yellow 3-1 Louie Lawton, Jacob Birks, Derrec Grant

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This was a season of progress – with any new team it takes some time to gel – and we started against some of the weaker teams and were lucky to beat Takapuna Titans first up being one down with five minutes to go.   We had a real wake up call against ABC Yellow – for the first 15 minutes there was parity and then we conceded two soft goals and they scored from a terrific PC and suddenly we were 3-0 down and playing catch up and never caught up as Yellow gave us a lesson in how to move the ball around the turf! We came away knowing we could play a lot better and the following weeks despite having three more losses we started to play some very good hockey against the stronger teams in our grade.  We moved from a 3-4-3 formation to 4-4-2 against Takapuna Black which gave us a bit more strength at the back and we looked to counter-attack on the break and Finbar scored a great goal from the top of the circle – at that point (third quarter) we were only 3-1 down middle of Q3: sadly Louie pulled a hamstring and we struggled with ten men afterwards.  So we were playing some good hockey but not really reflected in the results.

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Then COVID hit and interrupted our season.   This was disappointing for us as we were placed 10th at this point and there were teams we were confident we would have been at the very least competitive against who we hadn’t played, some of whom had played one more game than us.   I think we would have been top eight, which had been our target at the beginning of the year, with a full first round.

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Anyway, we were able to get back on the turf in September for Finals Hockey for the Bowl.  First up was NHI Tigers, a team that we hadn’t played in pool play and we ran out very comfortable winners retaining our 4/4/2 structure with a goal in each quarter: Indians got a consolation at the end.

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Our next game was a semi against ABC Yellow.   This was a see-saw game that saw Maroon take the lead three times and Yellow fight back on each occasion.   The game finished in a shoot out where heroics from Dominic Holt in goal and a cool head from Oscar Dorbeck and Derrec Grant meant that Bradley Bycroft didn’t need to take the final shot!

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Yellow won the play-off the following week (8-0) which meant that they were our opposition again in the final.   We continued to play deep and try to counter on the break.   Yellow were strong and had lots of possession which they turned to PCs but some good goalkeeping, rushing out and saves on the line kept them out.  Having been under the cosh for most of the first half, and against the run of play, we scored from our only PC of the game.   It was a hot day and Yellow had only two substitutes and they began to tire in the second half: we got back in the game and felt that we were winning the battle in midfield.   Jacob Birks kept a cool head to score our second, followed by a good team goal from Derrec Grant to go 3-0 up with a quarter to go.   Yellow fought valiantly in the fourth quarter and finally converted a PC, then we had a yellow card with six minutes to go.  Shortly afterwards Yellow got a stroke that Dominic Holt saved which was probably Yellow’s last chance and we held on to win the game, 3-1, and win some silverware in our first year as a team.

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Dominic Holt was our main goalie.   He had a very strong season and conceded only nine goals in the five games that he played as goalkeeper: he was outstanding in the shoot-out and made crucial saves (in and out of the circle) in our clutch matches.   Terry Surgue was our back up and had the misfortune to play for us when we were against the top teams: however he did have a strong game against North Harbour Indians Tigers which he can be very proud of, which got us off to a great start in Finals hockey.  Andrew Holt stepped in as goalie for one game and shows some real potential.

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Newcomers Alex Sim and Dhiren Keshaw played in the outside half roles and both improved hugely over the course of the year.  Alex is new to hockey and a year 10 and showed physical and mental bravery as he matured over the course of the year.  Dhiren was the quiet man of the team, but went about his business efficiently and with little fuss: towards the end of the season we moved him into an outside midfield role where he continued to contain the opposition and retain possession and pass well which gave us two solid layers.

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In the centre of defense captain Wayne Highet led by example.  Very unruffled and cool on the ball, he distributed well and mentored the younger players (i.e. the under 60s).   He always provided wise words of counsel during the game. Tobin Blathwayt played full back in the early part of the season before moving to striker. Andrew Holt covered all the defensive roles and is tenacious tackler and mobile: he linked well with other teammates.  

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I wouldn’t have swapped our midfield pivots for anyone else in our grade.   We had three players with Division 1 experience and they also had youth on their side, which meant that we were always competitive in the centre of the park.  Louie Lawton had an outstanding season, brave in defence and covering lots of ground – he was our “go to” person for PCs and developed a very nasty drag flick.   Tom Blathwayt didn’t take prisoners and was strong in the tackle, a good communicator and passer of the ball – after playing most of his hockey as goalkeeper and defender he scored his first goal after 12 years of playing hockey.   After Tom went back to America in August, Oscar Dorbeck moved from the front layer and was very effective with his pace and close control giving him the ability to get out of trouble, and he had a very strong season.

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 On the outside midfield channels, we had Bradley Bycroft, Finbar Hoyte and Nathan Sinclair – all school leavers in 2019 and new to adult hockey.   As a result, we had a strong running and pacey midfield quartet.  Finn’s goal against Takapuna Black was outstanding and we missed him in our final two games as he was working for the Electoral Commission.  Brad improved steadily over the season as his confidence improved and its great to see that he has organised two 7-a-side summer teams primarily made up of ABC players.  Nathan was another who provided some real bite to his play and he covered the pivot positions very effectively as well.  All were dedicated trainers.

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Up front we had a mixture of young and old.   Jacob Birks our youngest player showed some real potential culminating in a game changing goal in the final – an old head on young shoulders.   Graham Thompson was a very keen and enthusiastic trainer which was great to see at this stage of his hockey career: his hockey improved a lot over the course of the season and he was effective in the last few games of the season in a more defensive role.  Derrec Grant started quietly but by the end of the season was one of the strongest strikers in our grade with a good eye for goal and good decision-making skills – he kept his nerve in the penalty shoot-out in the semi-final.  Ronell Hensman, our Vice Captain, led the line well and made some telling contributions: he scored our first goal of the season which was a bit of a turning point and gave the whole team confidence.

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We had several casuals: Glenn Gilbert came back from injury to play in the Finals series and was a rock in defense, Colin Gibbs before his knee finally gave way, Noel Hensman played when he was in Auckland and maybe has a future as a full back (having played most of his career as right wing) as he played outstandingly well there, particularly against North Harbour Indians Tigers, and Zac MacGibbon played several games having never played 11-a-side before.

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Altogether this was a fun season.  It was great to welcome so many new players into the club and to see them taking leadership roles in bringing together summer hockey teams.

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Thanks to Graham Wessels and Rob Kennedy who played towards the end of the season.

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Finally, a big thank you to Gerard Tan and Nic Knowles who coached us in the early part of the season.  Their expertise was much appreciated both in terms of team drills and individual coaching.  Coaching is a real point of difference at ABC and it was great to have them on board.

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Tobin Blathwayt, Coach

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