By TANIA PHILLIPS
FIVE Tweed hockey assetts have helped Queensland win twin Australian Hockey League (AHL) titles.
Cabarita’s Savannah Fitzpatrick and Madison Fitzpatrick, Murwillumbah duo Dylan Wotherspoon and Andrew Butturini, and Kingscliff’s Jason Wilson are all national champions.
The Fitzpatrick sisters helped the Queensland Scorchers win its first women’s AHL title in eight years, as the perennial bridesmaids beat arch nemesis Western Australia Diamonds in a dramatic tournament decider in Hobart.
Following a scoreless 70 minutes, the undefeated Queensland side won 2-0 in a penalty shootout through goals to Jodie Schulz and Ashlea Fey and four saves by goalkeeper Audrey Smith.
Queensland had lost five of the previous seven AHL deciders, with their five straight grand final losses between 2006 and 2010 including four defeats to Western Australia.
The Fitzpatrick sisters were rookies in the Scorchers’ team.
Wotherspoon and Wilson helped Queensland claim back-to-back men’s national titles with a 3-1 victory over the Victoria Vikings in the tournament final.
Despite fielding six AHL rookies, and losing Australian Kookaburras’ star’s Matthew Swann, Matt Gohdes and Troy Elder to injury on the eve of the tournament, the Blades went through the competition in Melbourne undefeated.
Jamie Dwyer, Liam De Young and Jason Wilson scored in the final as the Blades won their third AHL title in four years under coach Matt Wells.
Butturini, the younger brother of Australian and New South Wales representative Matthew Butturini, was Queensland’s second goalkeeper in his first AHL tournament.
It is the first time Queensland has won both the men’s and women’s AHL titles in the same year.
Murwillumbah’s Jake Farrell, who won an AHL title with Queensland in 2012, played for the Northern Territory Stingers side that finished sixth in this year’s competition.
Dylan Wotherspoon and Andrew Butturini will now hope to gain selection for the Australian team for the Junior World Cup, to be held in India in December.
