The Northland women's hockey team selected for this year's National Hockey League competition has a very experienced feel to it, but coach Paul Snelling isn't getting ahead of himself just yet.
"It looks pretty good on paper but that doesn't count for anything yet, there's still lots to do," Snelling said.
The
team are aiming to shake off last season's poor results and, at the very least, improve on their sixth place in this year's competition.
The addition of North Harbour import Hannah Duley, as well as the decision by Jan and Rhonda Rowsell to play for their home province this season, make up for the loss of young Northlanders Alana Millington and Stacey and Carli Michelsen, who have all transferred to Harbour.
Last year's back-up goalkeeper Nicky Howes also returns for Northland as an import after narrowly missing out on the Harbour team.
Snelling said two more players are still to be added to the team list but that will have to wait until negotiations with possible Australian imports are completed.
"We're working on them but we just won't know anything concrete for a while yet," he said.
The final two places will be filled before the Mark Cromie Holden sponsored team's three-match series against the University of British Colombia on August 14-16.
