WA Country fights hard at titles

The second week of fixtures at the 2019 Australian Men’s Masters Hockey Championshipshas been dominated by Victoria, NSW, WA and Qld, who look on course to reach the business end of finals this Saturday.

Despite WA Country managing to secure some favourable results throughout the pool stage, the best medal chance appears to be with the Over 50s second division side, where South West players including Russell Pearce and Leon Price have been performing well.

Opening with a 4-3 win against Qld, WA Country’s Over 50s second division side were blown apart by a brilliant spell from Victoria’s Dermot Browne on Saturday, who netted twice in the space of 20 minutes.

Michael Lange pulled a goal back late off a smartly taken penalty corner, however the home side ran out of time.

However the hosts dusted themselves down and promptly got back in the winners’ circle with a 2-0 win over Qld No.2, before outlasting NSW 4-3 in a pulsating struggle on Tuesday.

Cruising with a 4-1 lead inside the opening 34 minutes, the home side was forced to hang on for dear life in the second half, as late goals to Waratahs duo Wes Johnston and Scott Doyle threatened to ruin undo all of Country’s good work.

Another side who has enjoyed a positive carnival has been the Over 55s division one team, who managed to claim an opening 2-0 pool victory over South Australia, with Associates’ Alan Kidd finding the net along with skipper Geoff Horsley.

Horsley’s side backed up the impressive showing against the Croweaters with a tremendous fightback against Victoria, coming from 2-0 down to snatch a 2-all draw, with two goals in two minutes.

Gold and bronze medal matches will be held at the Bunbury Hockey Stadium from 8.15am on Saturday morning.