Tassie to fight for national gold
TASMANIA has rewritten the history books by qualifying for its first national U21 men’s hockey final after skipper Jack Welch guided the side to a narrow semi-final win.
Welch, recently named in the Australia A squad to face Malaysia next month, scored a crucial hat-trick as Tasmania beat the ACT 4-3 to advance to today’s gold-medal match.
Assistant coach Ben Read said his players survived a nervy spell at 2-1 down in the second quarter before Welch’s heroics inspired them to victory.
“Jack was instrumental. He stood tall in a match where we needed our skipper to perform,” Read said post-match.
“Qualifying for the final is absolutely massive for this team, the individuals involved, the sport in Tasmania, and the state in general.
“We are the first men’s side to qualify for a final in this age group, but we know the job isn’t finished yet and we want to replicate the national title won by the Tassie Tigers in 2014.”
Tasmania opened the scoring in the 6th minute through Welch’s brilliance to lead 1-0 at quarter-time, before the ACT hit back with goals in the 20th and 26th minutes.
But far from hitting the panic button, Tasmania rose to the challenge with Welch levelling the scores with his second, and teammate Hayden Beltz nailing a penalty-corner flick just a minute later. The score remained at 3-2 through a tense third quarter before Welch completed his hat-trick with just nine minutes remaining.
The ACT scored a late consolation goal in the final minute to flatter the scoreboard as Tasmania rested the legs of its key playmakers for today’s final.
“It was a tough match, but we felt we were in control for the majority of the game and two high-quality penaltycorner goals before halftime gave us the ascendancy,” Read said. “As well as our captain, Beltz and Robbie Chapman were our standout performers today and we approach Victoria with the confidence that we can truly beat anyone.
“After a slow start to the tournament, we are building towards playing our best hockey and tomorrow’s final provides the ideal stage for the boys to showcase their class.”
Tasmania will enter as the underdog after Victoria demolished Western Australia 5-1 in their semi-final, however, they fell 4-3 to ACT in the round-robin stages of the tournament.
The match begins at 2.30pm with Tasmania aiming to complete a sweep of medals after this age group secured U16 bronze (2013) and U18 silver (2015) medals.
Tasmania’s U21 women will play Western Australia for seventh position at 10am after falling 2-0 to the ACT despite a strong first-half showing.