Cairns stars stick to their guns
HOCKEY CAIRNS’ top tier talent will play a crucial role in Queensland Country’s push for nationals glory from today and it starts against our most hated rival.
Six Far North players will don the maroon against NSW Country today to start nine days of quality hockey in Townsville, where conditions are set to favour many who know the venue well.
While the young men’s side enter the competition as underdogs, the women – featuring Brothers pair Haylee Brodin and Leigh Thomas – are title favourites alongside New South Wales.
Queensland Country men’s assistant coach and Cairns Hockey regional coaching co-ordinator Matt Cook said the girls were “genuine contenders” to snare some silverware from the event.
“They’ve only really had one injury in the lead-up but they’ve got an exHockeyroos player in Kandice Olivieri and they had a similar squad last year when they made the final,” he said.
Cook said on the other hand, the men had been forced into several changes on top of players deemed ineligible due to national under-21 selection.
The team has gone even younger to fill those positions, including bringing 18-year-old Saints star Daniel Pittendreigh into the squad.
“It has been an interesting campaign,” Cook said.
“But obviously with these guys pulling out it’s a great opportunity for us to call up some younger players.”
He said the squad had the right mentors to make sure the new faces could lift to the level required to put up a solid fight on home turf.
The representative players will be missing a massive final weekend of A-grade fixtures.
Saints and Stingers will both be missing players as they battle for the last finals place in the men’s competition, while in the women’s competition Brothers could sorely miss their two stars if top spot is still on the line when they play Saints.
Souths play the early Agrade women’s game.
As the Australian Country Hockey Championships end on August 19, semi-final fixtures will be pushed back to Sunday to ensure Queensland Country players can participate for their respective clubs.