It was shaping up to be a classic Australia vs New Zealand match up, our women's Black Sticks vs the Hockeyroos.
As we bed into a new Olympic cycle, both teams have a good sprinkling of exciting new players.
Australia still with painful memories of their quarter final Olympic Games knockout at the hands of our girls in Rio.
So I head out to the Sports Park and watch the game with a bunch of excited primary school girls.
It was an epic battle; the Black Sticks clinching a draw in the final quarter with a miraculous chip over the keeper by Sam Harrison.
Rose Keddell led some great work down the right flank, pulling in an outrageous overhead volley and creating space for the dynamic new Kelsey Smith to carve her way into the circle, finally threading the ball past the hapless Aussie defenders for Harrison to complete an incredible end to end goal.
The young girls on the side line were fizzing, up close to some of New Zealand's best female athletes, and seeing their heroes finish strong and level the game, putting themselves in a great position to make Sunday's final.
Amongst all the excitement the girls were blabbering "Wow how awesome! This will be on TV?!" they ask..."ah yeah...I assume so" I reply, embarrassingly changing the subject, knowing it won't be.
So after a great game we drive home turning on the sports radio. Well, you wouldn't have even known the game had taken place, they were just talking sports junk...and I thought to myself, wow - what a messed up world.
Friday morning I check on the sports radio again, and the three male presenters are commenting on what a tough week it has been, in regard to very little sport happening, so they're having to really dig deep to dredge up stories - Sam Cane may not travel to SA, Cooper Cronk is moving to Sydney to be with girlfriend, up-coming cricket tour selections, Jason Day's mum is sick...OMG.
Then the 9am news bulletin on the radio - men's golf, motor racing, tennis, and Aussie rugby league - no mentions of the Black Stick's test at all.
Of course, the media is a business, and if there is no benefit, then why try harder?
The more madly brainwashed they can make us on certain sports, the better - just look at the English Premier League, the tribalism developed around that has led to bizarre salaries for top soccer players, unhinged following from people all over the world - whereby an injury to a European star might get bigger coverage than one of our own real life female star athletes.
The Black Sticks attract such a great following when the Olympics come around, but it doesn't just have to be when medals are on the line.
I don't know what the answer is - but we don't have to be locked into such a rugby centric viewing society for eternity...because the way things are tracking, that's what's happening, that's our future.
In an American study dubbed 'Dude Time' is was found that despite a massive increase in the number of girls and women playing sport, ESPN's SportsCenter coverage contained just 2 percent women's sport. In the UK women's sport makes up just 7% of all media coverage.
The amount of news stories that cover male sport is embarrassing - and that is coming from someone who grew up playing rugby right through, and worked professionally in the sport for 10 years.
Don't get me wrong I love rugby, and league, watching Foran and the Warriors win last week was great - but the disparity is a joke, and when it comes to seeing young girls faced with the realisation that their sports just don't matter by comparison, it's downright sad.
I don't buy the argument that it is simply a case of guys being better athletes, and watching anything other than the best is a waste of time. If that was the case, we would only ever watch the All Blacks, and never bother with NPC rugby.
If covered properly, snail racing can be exciting (just look at the America's Cup). Imagine if the hockey test was afforded the same budget?
A thorough build up, insightful background on the players and the match tactics - all the camera angles, refs 'miked' up.
The sponsors that would then be able to go with it, the career paths for other media hockey experts - and just a bit more of a balanced life ahead for girls in sport.
And that's where the rubber meets the road for me, it's when you have young girls around, innocent to all of this, and confronted with this massive bias. How do you explain to them..."well, women's sport just doesn't really matter"? Why's that sir? ...ah, yeah let's change the subject.
Good on Hawke's Bay Today for their coverage of the hockey, and supporting a local event.
But given the overall media inequity, and the knock-on societal impacts that can have, perhaps the government or other funds need to step up to correct the imbalances, just as we do for other cohorts of society - to give female sports such as hockey a kick start, and try to correct things while we still can, before it gets any worse.
■ Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's
Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.