West is back to best after successful 13s tournament

Western Australia has finished the Hockey Australia Under-13 Carnival as the highest performing State across the boys and girls competition, capping off a successful year for Hockey WA in underage events.

The recent tournament took place in Hobart and ran from September 28 to October 4, with WA impressing throughout and claiming a silver medal and two bronzes across their four sides.

The Lightning and Storm finished second and third in the boys' tournament and third and sixth in the girls’ competition. 

The Lightning’s Phaedrus Liddiard and Storm’s Sebastian Metcalf and Koby Ashford were all in the top four of the boys' goal-scoring tally, while Mia Dellar of the Lightning finished sixth in the girls' race.

Hockey WA General Manager of Performance and Development, Dean Evans, said the tournament was highly successful and congratulated those who represented the State with pride.

“Collectively we were the highest performing state at the carnival, which is the first time that has happened since records have been kept over the last 10 years,” Evans said.

“I think it again demonstrates that we have got our development programs in a good place.

“We have been able to navigate through COVID very well and bring in new and innovative tournaments like the Future Thundersticks Classic, as well as our academy program.

“It is a credit to our coaches, the overall program, the volunteers and the players who invest their time in an amateur not-for-profit sport.”

Western Australia took four evenly-balanced sides to this year’s tournament rather than having a first and second-string team.

Evans said the model was the best fit for the Under-13s Carnival and helped with player development both on and off the field.

“The 13s is an entry-level, participation tournament, and I think having two even teams is far more appropriate from a development perspective,” Evans said. 

“It is not just about what happens on the field but about the experience those kids and their parents get from representing their state at a tournament.”

The exceptional results at the tournament mean WA have collectively been the most successful state throughout Hockey Australia’s underage championships for 2022.

Evans said it was a great reward for the hard work of the players, staff and volunteers who had helped achieve the feat for WA for the first time in well over a decade.

“It is the first time since records were kept which collectively puts WA back as the top State in underage hockey championships from under-13s to under-21s,” Evans said.

“We have had 10 years where we have been on average the fourth-best State, but 2022 sees us ranked number one.

“A lot of the kudos needs to go to the volunteer coaches, most of these people give up their own leave and they don’t get paid.

“A lot of them have either played for Australia, WA or are current Premier League players.”

Evans said the results in 2022 had come from many years of hard work from many people and credited forward-thinking initiatives from Hockey WA for the success.

“It has been a fantastic year for hockey in WA and I think a lot of that is the fruits of the labour we have gone through over the last few years,” Evans said.

“We produced a lot of innovative programs and I think that pragmatic, progressive approach has helped us to reap the rewards.”