Late start for hockey finals

By Gary Caffell
It will be a long day at the office for the Dalefield teams contesting the finals of the Wellington Hockey Association’s men’s and women’s premier division competitions at the National Hockey Stadium
tomorrow.
The women’s game which has Dalefield up against Eastern Hutt is not scheduled to get under way until 5.15pm with the men confronting Hutt at 7pm.
The reason for the later-than-usual starts is a decision by the WHA is to play no fewer than seven finals on the No 1 turf, starting at 9am.
Obviously it is not an ideal situation for the Dalefield teams and their supporters because of the trek over the Rimutakas but the message from both camps yesterday was that while it was not ideal it was something out of their control, and therefore they did not want to dwell on what, if any, effect it would have on their preparations.
“It won’t change the way we want to play, it’s not a massive deal,” men’s coach Willie Schaefer told the Times-Age, and his women’s counterpart Andy Wilson agreed with those sentiments. “We won’t be using it as any sort of excuse,” he said.
With the Dalefield women having already beaten Eastern Hutt twice this season, 5-2 and 3-0, the form book favours them completing a fairytale return to the premier division competition after an absence of several years. However, Eastern Hutt was not at full strength for either of those games and is likely to offer much sterner opposition with the title up for grabs.
No matter what the composition of the Eastern Hutt team though, the tactics applied by Dalefield are likely to be the same as they were in those previous two games where they focused on getting in the faces of their opponents with the idea of upsetting their rhythm by regularly turning over possession. On both occasions Eastern Hutt struggled to cope with that constant pressure and Dalefield will be keen to replicate that scenario tomorrow.
While Dalefield have plenty of outstanding individuals with five of their team already being selected for the Capital national league team – Michael O’Connor, Brigette Mossman, Kelsey Linton, Morgan Percy and Katherine van Woerkom – coach Wilson is quick to emphasise that grand finals are invariably won through teamwork rather than individual brilliance. “It’s all about working as team, that’s it for us, first and foremost,” he said.
The Dalefield men’s team is in the same situation as the women, twice they have played their final opponents, Hutt, this season and twice they have beaten them, 3-1 and 4-1. Here too then a good case can be made to have them starting as firm favourites but tempering that conclusion is the knowledge that Hutt contains several high-profile players who will relish the opportunity to strut their stuff in a match of this magnitude.
“Past results mean nothing now, it’s all or nothing,” coach Schaefer said.
What makes the men’s final really intriguing is that both Dalefield and Hutt play a similar style of hockey in that they prefer to build their attacks through a structured approach rather than relying on their opposition turning over ball and allowing them counter-attacking opportunities, something most of the other premier division sides are prone to do.
The fact Dalefield came through a tense and absorbing final to win the men’s title last year has to be a tick in their box as many of that side will also be involved tomorrow night and therefore already have first-hand experience of what it takes to succeed when the stakes are highest. There will be no panic in their ranks and that just might be the catalyst for title number two.