Like their female counterparts a week earlier, Orange claimed a silver medal at the Hockey NSW Under 18 Boys’ Indoor State Championship at Goulburn last weekend – a sterling result, considering how little they play the modified version of the sport.
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Orange coach Adam Hurford was over the moon with the result despite falling 6-2 to Sydney South in the final.
He admitted his troops were “outclassed” though, so the loss was far from disappointing.
“You look at it, [Sydney South] are playing twice a week and we have four or five training runs before we go to the championship, that’s it,” Hurford said.
“So I’m very pleased with the boys, we earned a lot of praise from other teams and coaches as well which was good.”
Orange rolled through the preliminary stages unbeaten with a first-up draw with Parkes (3-3) and wins over Coffs Coast (7-1) and Illawarra South Coast (8-0), a side they then beat 4-0 in their qualification semi-final.
Orange thumped Metro South West 6-2 in their semi-final before going down in the division two decider.
Hurford praised his entire side, made up of Jacob Skelton, Adam Skelton, Henry Jones, Conner Morris, Tom Powell, Tom Reddan, Kaleb Cook and Isaac Darlington.
“They really bought into what we were doing,” Hurford said.
“You always have that one game, that shady game let’s say, in these tournaments and we did that first up against Parkes.
“After that we reassessed our game plans. I had a lot of help from Adam Skelton in that regard, he skippered the side, and the boys really put into play the changes we made.
“It kept getting better and better and by the final we were playing really well, we just got beaten by a better side.”
The two second finishes signal plenty of promise in the indoor version of the sport in the colour city, which Hurford said has sparked conversation about starting a league in Orange.
“There has been a little bit of talk about it, but it’s early stages,” Hurford said.
“Just getting a competition going is important for us, so we can prepare a bit better for these competitions. We do well, so there’s plenty of promise in the sport.”