The nationals in Sydney this year marked the �changing of the guard�, where many of the junior players who had been around for a while had their first run in the mens team. The team consisted of : Steve Cleary (player/coach), Rowan Bridley (captain), Keith Midson, Simon Talbot, Hamish Ride, Rob Kilpatrick, Garry Davidson, Colin Hepher, Mathew Hosan, Nathan Whelan, Nathan Parsons & Stuart Parkinson.
The accommodation was a much more up market version of the Uni accommodation that we had the last time the nationals were held in Sydney in 1991/92. Three storeys of rooms with a courtyard in the middle brough back memories of the mass water fights that took place last time, but luckily for the hotel management the water bombardments were fairly low key.
The venue for the nationals was Homebush which is where the Olympics will be next year. The whole Olympic area was amazing. The pool was impressive - 2 50m pools, recreation pools, dive pool, water slide, current pool, 2 kiosks, underwater viewing facilities, etc. Two court were set up in the main competition pool, one at 2m depth and the other at 3m depth. The tiles were fast, but slightly slower than the Hobart pool.
A double round robin provided some very interesting and close games. Western Australia defeated us in the first round 3:2 after scoring 2 quick goals after we were winning 2:1 for a while. We then defeated WA 2:0 in the second round leaving us & WA equal in points, but WA had the higher percentage and took the top seeding into the finals. The win against Western Australia was a landmark of underwater hockey history. It was the first time ever that a Tasmanian men�s team had defeated them and the first time in about 10 years they had ever lost a game.
The finals roster was very badly organised. The top seed went straight into the grand final, whereas seed 2 played seed 3 in the morning of the final. This meant that Western Australia were fresh on the day of the final whereas we had to play the ever improving Victorian team. The game against Victoria was fast and intense. The scores were locked 1:1 at full time with both sides playing good open fast hockey. Fortunately we scored in extra time to defeat them 2:1 taking us into the final.
Three hours of rest and putting our feet up was all we got before the big game. Arnie Piccoli had turned up the day before to see how the Wassies were going. He warmed up with the men�s team for some peculiar reason, but didn�t actually play. I think the Tassie team ran out of umph after we scored the first goal of the game and eventually lost 3:1 in a hard fought battle of fast and ferocious underwater hockey.
Whilst it was disappointing to lose to WA (again...), it was encouraging to see younger players come through in all the state teams. It will be interesting to see how the nationals go when they are held in Western Australia at the end of the year.
Selections were held after the competition for the Australian teams travelling to Durban, South Africa for the Southern Hemisphere competition in April. Stuart Parkinson, Mathew Hosan and Simon Talbot were selected to represent the men�s team.
[Keith Midson 1999]
28th December:
Tas v NSW 6:0 win
Tas v Vic 3:0 win
29th December
Tas v WA 2:3 loss
Tas v Qld 5:1 win
30th December
Tas v NSW 9:0 win
Tas v Vic 5:2 win
31st December
Tas v WA 2:0 win
Tas v Qld 10:0 win
FINALS - 1st January
Tas v Vic 2:1 win (extra time)
Tas v WA 1:3 loss (Grand final)