2023 Season Round Up

Like GB says each year “why didn’t we write this earlier, when we could remember what happened!” …… Wait, I suppose that’s why he hot potatoed the writing of the team report this year, albeit at the last minute.

​

Over the past couple seasons, we have had a running joke within the team about the average age being so young, with majority of the team being only 18-22 years old…..the 2023 season was to be no different. Roughly half the team remained the same from the 2022 season, and we were fortunate enough to have some new (young) talent join our ranks in the form of Liam, Toby, Brooke, Anuj & Jacob coming up from the D1 grades, as well as gaining the experience of Dave Kay who joined the team from playing P2. The beginning of the season was a slow start with the first 5 games ending in a close loss or a draw, before we finally scraped together our 1st win of the season against HDF in game 6. At the end of the 1st round we were feeling a bit sorry for ourselves as despite having played some good hockey, we were sitting at 7th on the table, with NH Indians sitting just a couple points below us.

​

Come Round 2, our partnerships started to click and we managed to find our winning ways with several solid wins against NH Indians and most notably against top of the table NSU Blue, which even included a career highlight for Dave Kay busting out a Tiger Woods Celebration for having scored the match winning goal with 4 mins left to play. I might add that after that game NSU Blue then went completely downhill for the remainder of the season (1st place – 4th….then to 5th  after we knocked them out of the quarters)…..anyway, as I was saying, a number of good wins through Round 2, saw us lift to 5th place on the table heading into the Top 4 / Bottom 4 spilt, of which we continued our winning ways finished top of the bottom 4.

Heading into the quarter finals, we knew we had a big challenge ahead of us. The game was to be against NSU Blue, who had played a lot of good hockey throughout the season, although had gone downhill since out mighty win over them in Game 11. To be honest I can’t remember too many details about the game, other than it was a tough fought contest and NSU certainly were giving it their all. Before the game we spoke about the need for us to remain level-headed, against a team which had the potential to lose their temper, which they certainly did through the later stages of the game and ultimately our ability to remain calm and play to our style of hockey paid off with us taking a convincing win to advance through to the semi-finals. As fate would have it, our semi-final was to be against NSU Red, the team that we had heartbreakingly lost to in our 2022 semi-final. NSU Red had topped the table and won the championship (de-throning long reining champs Takapuna), so we knew we were coming into this game as the underdogs. Unfortunately, NSU came out on top with a 3-1 Win and our 2023 season was over….whilst we were disappointed to have yet again come so close to making it to the finals, we were able to finish off the season knowing we have left everything out there on the turf and we had finished the game having played some great hockey against a very solid NSU team.

​

All up over the season we managed 8 Wins, 7 Losses, 4 Draws.

​

To the team, thanks for another great year in the P3 side. We have had our moments of brilliance across the season and looking ahead to next year we are a in a good position to continue building on what we have achieved this year. Who knows, as the average age of our ‘young’ team gets one year older, we might be able to see and increase attendance for our post-game debrief up in the clubrooms next season?

​

Thomas Kendall

​

2022 Season Round Up

​

OK so at least this year I had a deadline that was right after the end of the season so I can remember

a good chunk of what happened, although I’m still not getting any younger so I might miss a few

things for all that.

First Miracle, we got a whole season of hockey in without the dreaded “Rona” coming in and ruining

it for everyone. Great Success!

We started the season a bit slowly with a couple of draws, in retrospect you can look back at the

little moments and think “if only” … the first two games probably fall into that camp. The game

against Warkworth in particular, we dominated and should have won, had we done so the end of the

season could have looked different. That said from game three we went on a seven-game winning roll, including Second Miracle – beating Takapuna for the first time in about 5 years. We played some really good hockey and Third Miracle – had a fully functioning attacking PC. The fact that I think we ended up with the two top male goal scorers in the club golden stick this year is an indication of both that, and working out it is

worth earning PC’s when they are going in.

Midseason I was still a bit wary, after a good start in 2021 we went flat for the second half of the

year. This year after being at the top of the table and me giving a big team talk about respect, we

went out and lost to the 7th placed team (fair credit to ECB they played a good game). I probably

won’t give the respect speech again. We picked ourselves up the next week though, and from there

through to the final competition game against Takapuna for the championship played good

constructive hockey.

Unfortunately, with the two early draws we were 2 points behind Takapuna on the table going into

the last round and so needed a win to take the chocolates. Despite a close three quarters that we

likely had the better of, we went into the last quarter a goal down and having to take risks, sadly the

risks didn’t pay off and we ended up losing 3-0.

The finals round was very painful (still cry myself to sleep most nights), we beat ECB in the quarters

but in the semi-final a late equalizer from NSU pushed us into a shoot-out, and then to sudden death

… and then to the bar to drown my sorrows.

So, it turns out you only get three miracles a season, and we didn’t take the championship or the

grand final this year. That said we are still the youngest team in the grade, and for the first time in

three years were able to contend with and beat every other side. With a good core of the team

having been together two or three seasons now we get to build on this and have another crack.

A special thanks to Team Jones for game day managing this year, it makes life so much easier and I

truly appreciate it.

To the team, thanks boys it has been an enjoyable and successful season, you have listened (mostly),

played some great hockey, maybe learnt something, and most importantly hopefully had some fun

as well. See you all in February!

19 games 12 wins 3 draws 4 losses (I am totally counting the NSU game as a draw)

GB

​

2021 Season Round Up

​

You have to ask the question, why did I not write this report sooner?  I knew I needed to do it, and let’s be honest, as the years advance I am having enough trouble remembering what happened yesterday, let alone four months ago when in between we have been stuck in a groundhog day loop!

​

Anyway, sadly I didn’t so you’ll have to forgive me if a few of the details aren’t entirely right, or indeed if the whole report has only a passing resemblance to what actually happened.  Luckily there are a few match reports that might help me out.

​

For those that don’t want to read much further I can probably sum up the season as;
“We started really well throwing the ball around and scoring lots of goals (ok so royal we, Hayden Foy was scoring all my goals), then we hit a bit of a dark spell, stopped scoring as many goals, and finished about the middle of the table.”

Looking at the positives, we got almost a complete season in before COVID came and ruined the playoff party, and at the moment, in the midst of hockey withdrawal, that seems incredibly fortunate.  We also played some really great hockey over the year, probably never more than three quarters of any single game, but when we just focused on passing and running into space, we created all sorts of trouble for every team in the grade.  Ultimately this is the lesson we need to learn to really improve, the P3 M grade is dominated by two teams that are made up with a core of master’s players, and to beat those teams you have to pass and run around them for 70 mins.

Over the season we Won 6, Draw 2, and Lost 7, which is a pretty similar shape to our last few seasons, and while we have always had by far the youngest team in the grade we are reaching the point where we need to change up the way we do things if we want to step up from the middle of the table.  We absolutely have the team to do it, but we need to consistently play the right style of hockey. 

As always it is a great group to be part, we all enjoy our hockey, and there has never been a lack of energy or enthusiasm for the game.  I do have to make a few special mentions, and it is super tough having to single out individuals, however after staring blankly at the wall for a bit, I put together a panel of three selectors and got to it.

Firstly, Hayden Foy won the clubs inaugural men’s golden hockey stick … which is probably glory enough for one season, so he doesn’t get our MVP but still holds some pretty serious bragging rights. 

Our MVP goes to Anthony (Arnie) Carter-Bell, who in his first season with us was an absolute rock at the back, stable and safe with the ball, a huge commitment and work rate, and fitting seamlessly in with the rest of the team, awesome effort for the whole year Arnie. 

Most Improved goes to Taine Kearney, who wasn’t even sure he could fit hockey around some other much less important sport he was playing on Saturday’s.  However, he started playing anyway and the direct clashes were few so we got to see Taine improve hugely over the year for P3, and fit in a few games for the P2’s around Harbour U18 commitments as well.

To the whole team … sadly it did end rather suddenly and even the plan to have a Saturday hit around game has disappeared under the weight of the lockdown.  So keep track of your shirt, have a great Christmas and New Year, get some fitness work in around the beer and pavlova, and fingers crossed I will see you all ready to go in a couple of months at

February trials.

GB

​

2019 Season Round Up

​

With many of last years’ more ‘experienced’ heads moving into the Div 1 grade for the 2019 season, it was left to a selected few to steady the ship for the next wave of talented young hockey players to enter the challenge of the Premier 3 men’s grade.

​

Even with 7 players moving down a grade, and 4 moving up from the 2018 side, the depth of the club came through and a very competitive side was assembled for the season ahead.

Despite there being so many spots up for grabs, there were talented players who missed out. This is a credit to the youth grade program and all those senior players who have helped in preparing a god stream of players coming up through the ranks.

​

The grade continued to be a competitive mix of rising stars and talented older prem 1 players stepping down. This made for a close competition. Although the Taka side went through the season unbeaten and remained in the pole position all season, the 2nd to 6th positioning remained tight.

​

 We hit the midway point of the season in second place (on goal difference), however, at the start of the second round, we dropped 2 games and tumbled to 5th, where we stayed till the end.

At the split, after 2 rounds we missed out on the top 4 and went into the final round as the best of the rest. We finished with a series of wins that earned us the plate trophy.

​

The season has seen another large group of young players move into a competitive grade, with a number of them looking dominant by the end of the year. The standard of hockey improved, and the grade served it’s purpose well in solidifying some young players skills whilst extending and preparing another group of players for the challenge of the Premier 2 and Premier 1 grades.

With a regular squad of 19 players, it was great that we still managed to give a number of Div 1 players plenty of opportunities to play up. We really appreciate their involvement and contribution this year.

I continue to be impressed by the maturity and skill of so many of our young players. They play the game we love with older heads than their years and have represented the club admirably. It has been my pleasure to be involved with these players and help them take a step towards their future goals.