A tough season for the P2 men this year.  We had eight new players to the team, seven of them

young guys coming up a grade, so there was always going to be plenty to learn and work on.  Early in the season we had some solid results and competitive games, with a draw against a strong Takapuna team, a close fought single goal loss to the NHISC, and a win against ECB.

 

However, at other times we conceded multiple goals in short spells through a drop off in intensity or concentration, and as a result couldn’t put pressure on our opposition consistently.

We had some success against ECB and some of the weaker intercity sides but we regularly conceded five goals in other games, and despite competing throughout the field and creating chances when we had the ball, it is hard to win games when you have to chase that on the score board. Transitioning to defence quickly and getting everyone marked up to shut down the opposition didn’t come easily and it was still a work on at the end of the year.

 

Availability of players (or lack thereof) seems to be a consistent complaint with the P2 seasons. School hockey and U18 commitments frequently impacted the Sunday lineup, another consequence of a younger team. A shout out to all the P3 guys who fronted up for two games on many a weekend to ensure we had enough players for Sunday games.

We were genuinely competitive in most of our games and have a talented group of young hockey players with great skills and athletic ability, but we need a couple of seasons with the same core unit to really develop to the level of other teams in the grade. There were periods of brilliant passing and running hockey that showed what we could actually do when we put it all together … sadly we just couldn’t sustain it for whole games.

 

The key takes outs from the year are:

 Keep a core group of players together,

 Intensity and focus for the whole game,

 Defend as a whole team every time,

 Pass and run don’t over carry the ###ing ball,

Hopefully we see everyone back next year, fitter, stronger, and maybe a little wiser.

 

2022 Season Round Up

We began the year with a very promising trial, with nearly 3 full teams there to compete for positions in the P1 and P2 sides for 2022. Good promising players are wanting to join our club because of the culture we have managed to create in helping to develop players through the various ABC sides to help them reach their potential.

 

With the early part of the season heavily dominated by Covid and fielding a full side the main priority we sat comfortably in the middle of the pack, losing early games by very little, and not quite converting good starts on the field. With representative players out and Covid ravaging the team we had a week of only having 6 regular P2 players, 4 P3 and 1 D1 ring-ins to scratch together a bare 11. At times the team was a little disjointed from so many people away.

 

Towards the end of the season, we had put ourselves in a position of needing to win each week to make it through to the top 4 (and therefore a shot at the final). It wasn’t to be, and we finished in 5th place at the end of the regular season. Still hockey is all about winning at the right end of the season, and we came good for the playoffs.

 

Facing ECB in our plate semi-final, they brought out the big guns who we hadn’t played all year. But we held our nerve and came through for the win 4-3 in a cracking game. Plate final up next and a match against NSU which we were keen for revenge after some close games during the regular season. The team came out firing and despite not having some of our champion Westlake players available on the day we came out with a convincing 4-1 victory and finished 4th place in the grade.

 

A huge thanks to our regular P3 players who stepped up during the season. Reece Gidlen 8 games, Gerard Tan 4 games, Reuben D’Souza 3 games, Joachim Tan, Thomas Kendall, Will Clarke and Jamie Spencer 2 games and Anthony Carter-Bell 1 game.

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2021 Season Round Up

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A mixed and somewhat frustrating season that ended just as it got going for the P2 men.

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With a much changed team this year, including many new, young faces, we got off to a flying start that saw us top of the league after the first round of games. Goals flowed as we hit teams for 6s and 7s with ease.

 

As the season progressed, injuries and u18s heavily hampered us. The performances were there but the goals had dried up, and by the end of the 2nd round we were under threat of missing finals hockey entirely.

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We continued to struggle in round 3, but a win against Indians was just enough to drag us into 4th place and still in with a shout. True to this team we turned up when it mattered and put in our best performance of the season to beat HDF in the first round of finals hockey, and fancied our chances against NSU in the semi final, before the season was cruelly cut short. On the charge and with a chance for redemption against Taka in the final 2021 was going to be our year. Bring on 2022!

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2020 Season Round Up

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With a slightly older team this year and a whopping 19 registered players the beginning of the season got off to a flying start.

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Week 1 saw Nic Knowles with an airborne save off the line to deny Takapuna a certain goal, week 2 Campbell Dye scores a reverse stick goal from the bass line into the top corner against NSU, and week 3 we scored our team goal of the year with small games to relieve defensive pressure up the left hand side, a base line move, back to the spot and into the goal.

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Round 1 saw us cement our position in the middle of the pack chasing a strong Takapuna side. Points between the three chasing teams were close with good tight games in an always competitive league.

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The plus side of COVID was we didn’t lose our representative players, which is a regular fixture in the P2 side. The negative of course was the massive break in the middle of the season, and then the need to create a finals format that would work with 6 teams. Split into two pools post COVID we knew going into the finals that a loss in the two play off games would probably result in us missing the final. Play off game 1 against NSU, and we should have finished them off being up 3-1 at half time. However they came back strong to draw meaning we needed win against Takapuna to put us through to the final.

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Biggest game of the year approached and the team went into it all guns blazing. The effort from the guys for the whole game was outstanding, and with 8 minutes to play and the score 0-0 we pulled our keeper looking for the win. The extra field player gave us an overload up front and we grabbed the goal required. Back on went the keeper, and two missed strokes later (no names) we finished with a 1-0 win against the top team all year. Brilliant, and with a draw and a win in the finals series we were surely going to be going through. Well that was until the Takapuna lawyers got involved, and long story short, they demanded that bonus points be included in the finals format, and that despite losing to us, if they were to beat NSU by 4 goals in the final game they would go through on goal difference.  They did just that, and were put through to the final on one loss and one win over our one win and one draw. Needless to say many a disgruntled email was exchanged over the next week about finals/formats/bonus points/who beat who/goal difference etc but the result stayed and we sat out finals day.

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A really difficult way to finish the season for the guys in what I’m sure we all agree was an incredibly challenging year. Here’s to a much improved 2021 at the mighty ABC.

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David Kay, Coach

 

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2019 Season Report

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2019 set off with a goal of top 2 for the P2 side. With an influx of new young players to the team, and a few of the old guard still around, it made for an exciting but largely inexperienced team at this level.

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The season started off promisingly with a number of good wins, but it soon became clear that the two top sides of the grade, Indians and NSU, were going to take some beating.  The expected middle of the season was once again highly affected by representative hockey for the young guys in the team. 

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We were both blessed to have 7 regular players in representative sides and cursed when they were all away together, and some weeks struggling to get 11 players onto the field. However, this was expected and didn’t come as a surprise. A huge thanks to the P3 players who helped us out during the season.

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Injuries this year to multiple key players also made the 2nd round a challenge, and although we put away HDF, we were still unable to topple NSU or Indians at crucial times. This resulted in finishing 4th on the table, the same as 2018, but well clear of missing out on the playoffs.

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Finals time, and getting over NSU still proved too much, leaving us with a playoff for 4th/5th on finals day. Another strong performance over Takapuna (as was the case throughout the year) saw us take out the plate final 3-2 and solidify our position of 4th on the table.

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A special mention must go to the best-dressed coach of the association Netesh Suka who donned the ABC colours with pride each Sunday to look after the team. Along with the support from the other members of the club, parents, girlfriends and wives who made it along during the season to cheer the guys on.

 

Here’s to another successful year in 2020.