SOUTHS Aces and St Pat’s White have finished the Bathurst Men’s Hockey Association first grade competition at the top of the table, and thus will be fighting for a grand final place tomorrow at Cooke Hockey Complex.
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The pair have enjoyed strong finishes to their season, and their first and second place finishes guarantee them a second chance at a spot in the decider should they go down.
Souths earned the minor premiership on the back on an excellent mid-season run that saw them take eight wins from 10 games.
Souths goalkeeper John Rudge predicts that this match will be the latest in a string of memorable games between the two teams.
“It has been a very close race with us. Throughout the whole season it’s always been a good game when we play them. Hopefully we can get the better of them here,” he said.
“Finishing on top has come down to a combination of things, but what’s been really great to see is our younger players showing what they can do in this grade. They’ve done a great job for us.”
The side, led by Jono Baillie and Andrew Cranston, have had their share of big wins over the White outfit.
They will be hoping to draw upon the hockey that gave them 10-2, 8-0 and 5-1 results this season.
“We’ll have half a dozen or so Premier League guys who’ll drop back to play in this. At the start of the year we had a lot of uni students who were playing, but as the year’s gone on we’ve had to call on a lot of new players as they left and our numbers got smaller,” he said.
“We definitely need to try and use our midfield because that’s been a big strength of ours. It could end up determining who wins the game. Keeping the ball will be the big thing, making sure that we deny them the opportunities to score.”
While Pat’s have had to endure a tough time against the two blues this year, they at least take some comfort in knowing they finally got the upper hand in their latest match with a 4-3 win.
It’s something that Pat’s player Brodie Cooke believes is a nice boost.
“It just shows that we can beat them and it gives the guys some confidence heading in,” he said.
“It’s definitely going to be a tight game especially with Souths having their Premier League side out of the competition – they’ll really be on the hunt to take the win here.”
Cooke says it’s nice to see Pat’s develop under a different team composition this season.
“It’s been a good mix of young and old this year, whereas previously it’s been quite a young team. A lot of the senior players have been good mentors for the team this year,” he said.
“Getting on the board early will be important. If we can score first we give ourselves a much better chance to win.”
The day’s minor semi-final will be between St Pat’s Gold and Kelso at 11am.
