ARTHUR IS KING OF THE GOAL SCORERS, BUT TIGERS END UP DOWN TABLE

THE Tassie Tigers narrowly missed out on the top-four playoffs, but one Tasmanian is making waves at the halfway mark of the Australian Hockey League in Perth.

Kieron Arthur has slammed home eight goals from the opening four pool matches, to sit three goals clear on top of the goal scoring charts. The surveyor, now based in Sydney, admitted to being somewhat surprised after scoring just eight goals in his opening 44 AHL matches coming into this year.

“I’ve been working hard over the past few years on my penalty corner flicking technique, but a large component in my success is the team earning penalty corner opportunities in the first instance,” Arthur said. “My aim is to keep doing my job for the team and not focus on the individual side of things.”

Despite an Arthur hat-trick, the Tigers fell to Queensland 4-3, drew 1-1 with defending champion Victoria and beat SA 6-0 and New Zealand’s Development team 5-3 in their pool matches.

“Missing out on the top four is obviously very disappointing, especially after only losing the one game,” Arthur said. “Both games have come back to hurt us in the end, but looking back if we had held on to get a draw against Queensland, it would have put us into the finals.”

The Tigers next face Northern Territory today at 1pm.

The Van Demons have found the going tougher after finishing fifth in their pool group and will be searching for their first win against ACT at 9pm tonight.