Northland men's hockey coach Richard Storey has named a strong looking squad to begin training for the 2007 National Hockey League season.
The squad is a mixture of youth and experience and while training will focus on performance, it will also continue to develop the province's young players for future campaigns,
Storey says.
"Some of the young guys might be bit players, at least to start with, but they'll benefit from the experience of travelling and training with the team," Storey said.
The squad includes three under-18 representatives, Thomas Keogh, Zane Adams and Jareth Cocking but also includes plenty of experience, with 98-game Northland veteran Mark Meyer set to return for another season.
"We're also going to carry another five or six junior players who are going to train with the squad, with the view toward developing them for next year because at 16 or 17 they're just not quite ready for this level of hockey yet," he said.
The squad is entirely made up of Northland players at this stage but the possibility of including one or two imports from Australia or other regions is still open.
"We're talking with a couple of players, one in Australia and another New Zealand player, but it really depends on their availability - if they can only play for five of the seven weeks that could create disharmony in the team rather than produce any bonus," he said.
Storey wants import players available for the whole competition or not at all.
"We are building a team for the future and the best way to do that is draw on the local players who have the desire to play for Northland."
The team is building for its first official trial match, on September 2. Training starts at 9.15am this Sunday at the ITM Rosvall Hockey Stadium.
Former Northland representative Darren Jones will manage the side.
Training squad: John Child, Jareth Cocking, Nick Breslin, Kane Gillingham, Keiran Lynn, Vaughan Gillingham, Tama Jones, Mark Thorne, Bryce Reid, Mark Meyer, Brad Cotton, Michael Scot, Andrew Maclennan, Carlo Aprea, Dion Watts, Zane Adams, Thomas Keogh, Brett Hood, Dean Gibson.
