FOR the fifth year in a row the New South Wales Country men have been crowned the Australian Country hockey champions, but not before coach Jaden Ekert had to usher in some changes.
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The Bathurst mentor was frustrated in the opening round of the Townsville tournament as his team enjoyed plenty of possession, but went down 2-0 to Queensland Country.
So he altered the structure of his side, giving it a more attacking focus. It was a move that paid off as NSW went on to win Saturday’s decider.
“We hit a bit of a speed bump in our first game because we actually lost to Queensland 2-0, that was our first loss in five years,” Ekert said.
“So I had to address a few things in the way we played. The next game we drew 4-all, we were actually up 4-1 with seven minutes to go but they got three short corners and scored off all three, that was against Defence Force.
“But from then on in, we just steamrolled through. We beat South Australia 7-0, Victoria 5-1, we beat WA 5-2 then we went and beat Victoria in the semi-final 5-0.
“I changed some things pretty heavily structure wise on how we press off the 16 and how we condense the midfield.”
In the grand final NSW once again came up against Queensland, but this time the outcome was different. Ekert’s side won 3-1, with Bathurst’s Riley Hanrahan amongst the goal scorers.
“It was a real clutch moment because it was 2-0 at the time and about 20 minutes from full-time. It was just one of those moments where neither team looked like scoring because the defence was really good at either end,” Ekert said.
“Something had to give and fortunately for us Nic Milne threw a massive overhead and Riley got on the end of it. Somehow – I don’t know how – he trapped it and then across his body had a shot and nailed it in the bottom corner.
“That’s pretty much what won it for us. It was 3-1 with about seven minutes to go and I quickly changed our defence in terms of how we were going to possess the ball.
“We just didn’t turn the ball over, we held the ball for five minutes.”
Bathurst also had representatives in the NSW Country women’s side which finished the tournament as runners-up.
Bathurst City goalkeeper Maddy Tattersall and striker Kelsey Willott were both part of the side which won four of its seven matches.
Having finished the pool rounds in third position, their side posted a convincing 5-1 semi-final win over Australian Defence Forces to qualify for the decider against Queensland.
Unfortunately Queensland won the decider 2-0 on Saturday.
