Lions are ravenous to taste Cup glory

CANTERBURY will be out to taste its first piece of silverware since the 2000 A-Grade men’s premiership, when it faces Premier League champions Derwent in the inaugural State Club Cup final on Saturday (2.30pm).

The Lions have focused all their energies on the cup final after being bundled out by Derwent in the preliminary final on sudden death penalties three weeks ago.

A heavy training schedule has also allowed stars Ian McHugh and Alex HoganJones to re-integrate themselves after their Premier League finals were compromised due to injury.

In stark contrast, the Strikers will need to get themselves up after massive celebrations as they claimed the Premier League’s top honour against OHA a fortnight ago.

Player of the Final Vaughn Bowen will be particularly important for Derwent, after he lifted his side off the canvas in the last quarter when reduced to ten men. This time, the Strikers are expected to be without a few premierships stars as they wear the cost of that title win, with Stuart Webb, Liam Grundy and Linden McCarthy all far from locked in.

“We haven’t trained postgrand final win and will have a light run Thursday beforehand just to check in on how some guys are feeling and assess our options from there,” Derwent coach Nathan Fitzpatrick said.

“The main goal was always the Premier League trophy. That’s what we set ourselves to achieve, and the guys gave it everything to win it. The Cup is a nice initiative that we hope grows in time and we’ll use it as an opportunity to recognise our squad mentality and give some rising stars more minutes.

“That being said though, we have a winning culture and it’ll possibly be Paul Ancher’s last senior game for the Derwent Hockey Club and such a champion player deserves to be sent out with a win.”

Canterbury coach Craig Donovan says his players are “frothin’ more than Kelly Slater on an eight-foot pipe day” to be part of the Cup final.

“Hopefully it’ll be good entertainment for the crowd,” he said.