ADF's quick sticks

Volume 48, No. 12, July 13, 2006

MOVE IT: FLTLT Chelsea Dunn pushes the ball during a game in the Country Hockey Championships.  Photo by Craig Miller

JUDGED the most improved player of the tournament, FLGOFF Mark Ross made his mark on the recent Australian Country Hockey Championships in Bendigo.

He was recognised as a player who will make a strong Saab ADF men’s team member for several years to come.

LAC Adam Humrich and LAC Nelson Parlett were key Air Force players for the ADF men, with CPL Di Casey and FLTLT Chelsea Dunn strong contributors for the women.

The teams gathered in Melbourne for a week before the titles and were based at Watsonia Barracks to prepare, train and play practice matches.

The men’s team, which has been rebuilding for the past few years after the retirement of several key players, produced some strong results against the best the country had to offer.

After two days of training, the men were edged 2–3 in a practice match against one of Melbourne’s top State League One teams, Doncaster, with strong passages of play against a strong, well-trained and drilled opposition.

“The training camp was essential to meld the teams before taking on some of Australia’s best regional hockey players,” head coach LEUT Andrew Bewick said.

The draws against regular competition ‘cellar-dwellers’ SA (2–2), hosts VIC (1–1) and traditional rival and tournament favourite QLD (1–1) were not beyond the possibility of ADF winning.

The team was unlucky not to capitalise on opportunities to put away games and allowed mistakes that permitted late goals to draw matches.

Losses to WA and NSW prevented the team from making the semi-finals and taking some strong performances into the weekend. In the play-off for fifth, the team played SA and produced the performance that they had been waiting for all week – an impressive 7–2 win.

“Australian Country selectors and Hockey Australia personnel commented on several occasions that this was the toughest team that the ADF had brought to the championship in years,” ADF Hockey public relations manager, LEUT Stuart Cayzer said.

“The ADF just did not get decisions going their way in key sections of matches that would have assured the team a semi-finals berth.”

The women’s team produced a mixed week of performances in some close results and tough matches that proved the strength of ADF women’s hockey.

Strong defence was to the fore all week and they were unlucky to lose on several occasions in the last five minutes of matches.

In a play-off for fifth and sixth places against SA, a tense scoreless draw relegated ADF women to sixth, based on other results from the week.

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