52 Years In The Making
Published Wed 27 Nov 2024
MINOR PREMIERS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 52 YEARS
52 years is a long time to wait for anything, but the wait has paid off as the Canberra Chill men secure the Minor Premiership for the first time in 52 years!
A long time coming for the Canberra Chill finishing 5th in 2019, Covid stopping the comp in 2020 & 2021 before returning in 2022 where the men finished 4th and a last place finish in 2023.
You can’t fault the group for trying every year. There has been some incredibly close matches and with a format like the Hockey One league, the result can change in an instant. Each year the group changes with retirees, franchise changes, injury, coaches and international imports and every year they all try just as hard.
2023 was an especially hard year as the group lost 2 of their Australian representative players due to injury only weeks before the Hockey One league started. This can often rock a squad however this also gave the opportunity for more local player to showcase their skills and that they did however the game can change in a instant and luck wasn’t on our side.
The 2024 saw the return of those injured players with Andrew Charter in the net and Anand Gupte returning to the defence as well as some key international signings with Xavi Gispert (Spain), Theo Ponthieu (France) and Kaito Tanaka (Japan) and a mix of the incredible local talent.
Often written off early and considered the underdogs, the men were out to prove that they have what it takes to win the league and with many jaws left on the floor, the men came out firing with 5 wins and 1 loss in the rounds which secured them the top spot and Minor Premiers. What an incredible achievement for the “under dogs”.
All eyes are now set on the finals series this Saturday Nov 30 and Dec 1 in Hobart.
The men head to Hobart this Thursday afternoon and will take on the Brisbane Blaze at 11:00am Saturday November 30 in their semi final. A win in the semi will lock the men into the gold medal match on Sunday at 3:30pm.
