Graduates get guns back for Uni stoush
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 A RESURGENT DiamondBacks side has just a stunned OHA standing in its way towards a surprise women’s Premier Hockey League grand final appearance.
The Maroons ended the season of threetime defending premiers North-West Graduates last week in clinical fashion, winning 2-0 thanks to goals from Philly Bridley and Emily Donovan. In contrast, the Ships find themselves into today’s 2.30pm preliminary final by virtue of the double chance after being crushed 4-1 by Derwent.
OHA gave up 16 goal shots and nine penalty corner opportunities to the Strikers from 25 circle entries and will need to tighten up defensively to earn another crack at Derwent in next weekend’s grand final.
“The team is back to 100 per cent and really keen for this weekend after a good week of training,” DiamondBacks coach Rowan Bridley said. “We have never really played OHA at full strength this year and we have improved immensely over the last round and the belief in the team is high.”
OHA coach Sam McCambridge feels his side matches up well against the Maroons but was non-committal about whether Sofie McLeod would play after not taking the field last weekend.
Post-match, attention will turn to the Premier League best and fairest award with several fancies emerging from the coaches.
“Hannah Richardson and Emily Donovan have had great seasons, with Sarah McCambridge and Laura Spandler from our team also strong,” McCambridge said.
Bridley said: “It’ll be interesting as Derwent’s Amelia Spence has only played 12 games. Nicole Geeves has had a great year, Richardson and McCambridge too.” MEN’S Premier Hockey League minor premiers NorthWest Graduates welcome back star duo Jai Walker-Kidd and Gobindraj Gill for their preliminary final against University tonight from 4.30pm.
Having secured the double chance, the club took a cautionary approach to the pair and sat them out of Graduates’ 3-2 loss to Derwent last weekend. Gill’s importance was demonstrated by his call-up yesterday into Australia’s under-21 Sultan of Johor Cup side for October’s tournament in Malaysia.
“Jai was given clearance to play on Thursday night and trained well so for just the second time this year we will be full strength,” Graduates coach Stephen McMullen said.
“I’ve never experienced conditions like we had for the semi-final. It was a full-on arctic blast that came through and unfortunately meant the freeflowing style and skills of the game were gone and it turned into a survival match.
“We still have two guys with heavy colds who have rested up but will weekend.”
University had to survive a penalty shootout against Canterbury, but has drawn confidence from its run of wins.
“It was a pretty bruising encounter and required everyone to find something extra, but that’s what finals are all about,” Uni coach Paul Ancher said.
University knocked NorthWest Graduates out in the penultimate stage of finals last year, with Ben Read converting a late extra-time penalty stroke, but Ancher says they again enter as underdogs.
“North-West are clearly favourites and that doesn’t bother us one bit. We’ve got confidence in our game plan, confidence in each other and a love of the challenge in front of us after having played basically knockout hockey for the past month,” Ancher said. be fine for the