By RICHARD PHILIP
KINGSCLIFF Sirens continued their dominant display in the J.H. William Women’s Hockey Cup with a 5-0 demolition of Murwillumbah at Barrie Smith Hockey Field at the weekend.
The only undefeated team in the competition, the sirens were in devastating form in the second half. Coach Andrew Kirby is very happy with the commitment of all his players, and after seven weeks to still be undefeated is also making him smile.
They didn’t have it all their own way though and in the first half Murwillumbah caused them all sorts of headaches and it was only superb scrambling defence by Kingie keeper Tracy Flanagan and full back Alicia Harvey that stopped the Murwillumbah attack. However even though Meribah were all over Kingscliff they could not score, while the Kingscliff side made sure both their scoring opportunities found the back of the net. They were 2-0 up at the break thanks to the goals to Sam See and Sam Morton.
A pep talk by coach Kirby saw Kingscliff step-up a gear and they scored three more unanswered goals. Even though Murwillumbah tried the entire game and had good intensity they were no match for the more powerful Kingscliff side, this week lead by Sam See and Nicole Clarke
Over in Lismore, Casuarina played Northern Star and came away winners 4-2.
The Northern Star team concentrated on defence and most stages had their entire team defending which made for a somewhat scrappy game. Casuarina continued to attack and a hat-trick of goals to goal-scoring machine Kim Tuckwell and one to Allie Fitzpatrick put the game in no doubt but a late scare saw the Casuarina defence fall asleep to let Northern Star score two relatively soft goals.
Kim Tuckwell, former Australian player and now a veteran, still has the best ability of any player in this competition to score goals. I would love to know how many goals she has scored in her illustrious hockey career. I am guessing 1000 or more.
The other local women’s game was between Waratahs and Ballina but this game was not played as Ballina had most of their team away.
In the men’s Harcourt Hockey League, Central Comets remains on top of the ladder with a 3-2 win over Waratahs.
Waratah Bobcats were missing three of their best – Tim Willis, Dwayne Newell and Clint O’Keefe .
It was an ordinary first half by the Comets but they came home strongly with Luke McMahon once again proved too fast to control up front.
In the other game, Kingscliff Stingers were too good for the East Coast Sharks who were missing six of their first grade players, with the Stingers winning 6-0.
The men are now playing a mid-season nine-a-side comp with all teams only allowed to have nine players each on the field.
Normal hockey rules apply but with only nine players there is so much more space hence an even faster game and more goal-scoring opportunities.
Next Saturday at Murwillumbah, in the men’s Harcourt Hockey League at 5pm Waratah Bobcats v Kingscliff Stingers and at 6.25pm Central Comments v East Coast Sharks. In the women’s J.H. Williams hockey cup it is 2.10pm Casuarina up against Glee and at 3.25pm Waratahs Falcons take on the undefeated Kingscliff Sirens leaving the Murwillumbah team to play against Northern Star at Lismore, at 2.55pm.
