Hockey: Academy eyes Aussie trip

Schoolboys Mac Wilcox (front) and Dylan Thomas will use the Queensland games to prepare for the NZ U18 cut. Photo / File

For several years the Queensland Academy age-group hockey teams have travelled to Hawke's Bay to play their counterparts.

That may change in 2015 if the best-laid plans come to fruition as the the Bay academy looks to reciprocate by taking under-15 boys' and girls' teams across to Queensland.

"A meeting's on the agenda with the Queensland coaching staff to go there but we don't just want to go there, but take the right teams in two years," says Bay academy and reps manager Dean Hulls as they prepare to host the Queenslanders this week in Napier.

The CCR Queensland Challenge Cup will be played at the Hawke's Bay Hockey Stadium, Park Island, on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

"When we go to Queensland we want to make sure we have quality so we have pretty good under-13 boys and girls and they'll have pretty hard games," Hulls says.

The Queensland Academy are fielding boys' and girls' under-19 teams, although there's a blend of players as young as under 16.

Hawke's Bay won the Challenge Cup in 2012 and will be looking to retain it this year.

Wednesday's games start at 6pm while Thursday's game starts at 5pm, with the girls and the boys from 6.45pm.

The Bay sides boast Junior Black Sticks (under-21), NZ Under-18 Tiger Turf players and a blend of Central Districts National Hockey League, CD Under-21 and CD Under-18 players.

While Junior Black Sticks player Sam Greaney is the drawcard for the boys' team, schoolboys Dylan Thomas and Mac Wilcox see the games as a stepping stone to higher honours.

"They've be been training for almost 10 times a week, building up for the New Zealand training squad of 30 which will be trimmed to 18," Hull says of Thomas, of Hastings Boys' High School, and Wilcox, of Napier Boys' High School, who head up to Auckland on Friday to make the cut for the New Zealand Under-18 squad.

Because of Queensland's strength, the Bay academy side will include striker Martin Atkins, of Wanganui, who Hulls reckons is on the fringe of Black Sticks men's call-up.

"The criterion is we have to pick players from our Central Districts region," he says, adding that Joshua Smith, of Palmerston North Boys' High School, is also in the Bay equation.

He thanks CCR's Chris and Roger Greaney for "putting their hands in their pockets" to provide the teams' kit.