Medals slip from juniors’ grasp

TASMANIA’S under-13 sides have narrowly missed the medals as the Australian boys’ and girls’ hockey championships concluded in Hobart yesterday.

The boys thrashed the Northern Territory 9-0 in their final match to earn fourth place in the 12-team competition.

Two goals in the first half from Oliver Stebbings, and others from Oscar Pritchard and Max Johnstone set the hosts up with a 4-0 advantage before they powered away in the second term.

A second-half hat-trick to Milo Gee and a brace inside a minute from Bailey Stephens rounded out an easy win for coach Bianca Langham-Pritchard.

“It’s been a stellar performance from the team throughout a gruelling week where our commitment and desire to improve each game was my highlight as coach,” Langham-Pritchard said.

“The team MVP award went to Oscar Pritchard, ahead of MVP runner-up Ruben Hoey and the coaches award went to Milo Gee, but these are an awesome bunch of young lads who will go far in both hockey and life.”

After opening the tournament by going nine games unbeaten, Tasmania’s girls unfortunately fell to a narrow loss in their final match to slip out of medal contention.

Tasmania led 1-0 against Queensland at halftime thanks to Isabelle Davie’s penalty-corner goal before the visitors hit back twice to claim a 2-1 win.

“The girls did a great job and it was so close between the top teams, and a couple of wins instead of draws would have seen us finish the tournament much higher,” Tassie girls’ coach Nic Duffy said.

“Our MVP award went to Ellie McDonald and the coaches award was presented to Felicity Wilson-Haffenden.”