By RICHARD PHILIP
Kingscliff will take on Northern Star in Lismore at 2.55pm while Casuarina play Waratah’s in an all-Tweed final at Murwillumbah’s Barrie Smith Hockey field at 3.55pm.
The results for the final round of the men’s home-and-away season of the inter-regional competition weren’t flattering for Tweed sides with only Kingscliff, which earned a grand final spot as the top finishing Tweed side, taking any points against the Lismore teams.
Pre-competition favourites Waratahs lost 6-1 against Lismore champions and minor premiers Northern Star after 5-1 half time scores.
Central Comets lost 2-1 against Coraki, which was a flattering score-line for the Comets thanks to an outstanding performance from their goal keeper Shaun Wedd.
The East Coast Sharks lost to East Lismore while Kingscliff drew 2-2 with Ballina. It was a game that Kingscliff had plenty of opportunities to win with 20-plus shots on goal. However they only managed to convert two.
The overall points score ended with Northern Star and Coraki on equal points on top but Northern Star winning the grand final berth for Lismore on goal balance, with East third, Ballina fourth followed by Waratahs and Kingscliff equal on points. Kingscliff took fifth and the grand final berth on goal difference leaving Waratahs in sixth, Comets seventh and East Coast Sharks eighth.
The grand final will now see Northern Star and Kingscliff fight it out for club and regional pride while the other teams will have the weekend off.
This competition has shown that the Lismore teams are playing much stronger hockey then Tweed this season and if Kingscliff have any chance on Saturday they will need to make a big turn around in form. However, as they are in their first ever J.H. Williams grand final I expect they will give it their all.
The women’s competition is played in a different format to the men’s with the top four teams playing semi-finals to decide the finalists (what ever region they are from) and the bottom four playing off for a “second division” title.
In semi-final at the weekend first-placed Kingscliff, took on fourth-placed Waratahs and second-placed Casuarina’s opponents were Glee, from Lismore, who finished third.
The results saw Waratahs defeat Kingscliff 3-2 and end hopes of an all-Tweed Coast final, with their young gun Emily Hetherington scoring all three goals for Waratahs. Casuarina kept the Tweed Coast hopes alive with a strong 4-1 defeat of Glee with Kim Small adding two more goals to her growing title and Maddison Fitzpatrick and Tracey Murray scoring a goal each.
The Division 2 competition saw wins to Lismore teams as Northern Star defeated Murwillumbah and East defeated Ballina. These results now mean that the women’s J.H. Williams grand final will be played in Murwillumbah on Saturday with Division two final between East Lismore and Northern Star at 2.10pm and then followed with the Division 1 grand final between Waratah and Casaurina at 3.25pm with all the other Women’s teams having the weekend off.
Note: Richard Philip is the PR officer for Tweed Hockey and coach of the Kingscliff men’s team.
