TALK TO THE HANDS: Ruben Parker Hanks has run a tight ship for Rovers. PHOTOS/WARREN BUCKLAND
TALK TO THE HANDS: Ruben Parker Hanks has run a tight ship for Rovers. PHOTOS/WARREN BUCKLAND
IT'S EASY to overlook the accomplishments at the rear end of the park when a football team is making gargantuan strides in a league.
For argument's sake, TSB Bank Napier City Rovers are undefeated after seven matches in the Lotto Central League so it's human nature to instinctively laud the prowess of a robust strike force netting 33 goals through the likes of golden boot front runners Ryan Tinsley, Angus Kilkolly and Saul Halpin.
Occasionally captain/centreback Danny Wilson and his Beefeaters are mentioned but you have to go much deeper to find two blokes who tend to bask in obscurity despite dressing up starkly different from the 20 other players on the field.
Those men are the goalkeepers. In the Rovers' case it's teenager Ruben Parker Hanks filling a man's boots.
The 19-year-old gloveman has the remarkable statistics of having eights shots put past him into the net before the league leaders host Petone FC tomorrow at 2pm at Park Island, Napier, in round eight.
The prudent will perceive the table-topping Blues as overwhelming favourites at Bluewater Stadium tomorrow against the seventh-placed Wellingtonians who have two wins and as many stalemates to their credit.
That achievement isn't lost on Parker .
"It's definitely the best start I've had in any league or tournament. It's definitely the best team I've ever played for."
Like Kilkolly, the teenager missed the cull to the Darren Bazeley-coached Junior All Whites team for the Fifa Under-20 World Cup campaign after a one-year stint with the Auckland City youth side.
"It was disappointing but it didn't stop me from carrying on," he says in his first season with the flagship football team in the Bay after a decision to attend the Eastern Institute of Technology to study viticulture and wine science.
LISTEN UP: Only eight goals have got past Ruben Parker Hanks' mitts in seven games.
His attitude to goalkeeping boils down to taking ownership whenever the ball makes it past his trusted pair of Just4keepers (J4K) gloves between the sticks.
"I always look at what I could have done differently."
He cross-examines himself in the box, as it were, because relaying information to his centrebacks and tall timber on the flanks to anticipate raids is a fundamental part of his portfolio.
"You can't let anything get you down during the game but after the game it's okay so you don't distance yourself from the game."
An unblemished record certainly boosts the confidence levels - turning the home turf into a fortress - but Parker realises its a fine line between having a skip in one's step and complacency.
"Yes, we can sometimes go to games expecting to win."
Negating that sort of smugness is something player/coaches Bill Robertson and Chris Greatholder have made a mantra as the Blues strive for a double-double league and Chatham Cup (national knockout) glory this winter.
"Chris and Bill remind us at every training that we can't do that and we especially need it for Chatham Cup because it'll take us to a whole new level."
While relishing their top-of-the-table position tomorrow, he says treating Petone with anything short of threat will be an ill-gotten game plan.
"Any Central League side can show up on their day and make it hard for us but we're still going in as favourites," he says, mindful keeping the Blues faithful happy is equally significant.
Conceding an early goal away to Palmerston North Marist in the Rovers' 6-2 victory last Saturday is a sobering reminder.
Parker was born in the region of Galicia in Spain where his parents, Darryl and Lois, were Christian missionaries.
His Kiwi father met his Canadian mother there but the family moved to Rotorua when he was 9.
In the Spanish culture, he says, children traditionally include the maternal maiden name that's why he is "Parker Hanks".
But it soon dawned on the youngster that there was more to parrying a ball away from the net enclosure in the beautiful game that can sway the mood of fans in the blink of an eye.
"It was definitely to do with decision-making," says the man who sometimes did it the hard way in coming to terms with the harsh realities of anticipation.
In his first tourney as keeper, Parker's enthusiasm had got the best of him. He ventured deep into his half of the field to execute a tackle and collected a red card for his troubles.
At the age of 11-18, he had left the suburban club to join the Bay of Plenty/Waikato set up.
Last year he had dislocated his shoulder while training with the Junior All Whites but says he's back to his best now.
Rovers: Ruben Parker Hanks (GK), 5 Finlay Milne, 6 Miles John, 7 Stephen Hoyle, 8 Ryan Tinsley, 9 Angus Kilkolly, 10 Saul Halpin, 11 Tom Biss, 14 Josh Stevenson, 15 James Hoyle, 16 Danny Wilson (c), 17 Fergus Neil, 18 Chris Greatholder, 19 Bill Robertson, 20 Fane Morgan, 23 Kyle Baxter (RGK ).
Coach: Bill Robertson. Asst coach: Chris Greatholder.
Petone: Daniel Clarke (GK), 2 James Nash, 3 Logan Archer, 4 Ben Feld, 5 Leon Steinboehmer, 6 David Lane, 7 Bob Berry, 8 George Milne, 9 Sean Clarke, 10 Van Elia, 11 Ryan McGlinchey, 12 Sam Greene, 13 Reiner Bauerfeind, 14 Richard McLay, 15 Ryan Benson, 16 Tavonga Mahowa, 17 Benn Dawson, 18 Jake Togher, 19 Bayley Chadderton, 20 Jordan Pickering, 21 Alex Sheppard-Reynolds, Reed Collingwood (RGK).
