Dalefield's time to step up

PREPARED: Back row, Benedict van Woerkom (left) Phil Arkell, Alex Sumenko-Bucknell, Daniel van Woerkom, Morgan Taylor. Third row, Bernard Lett (co-manager), Willie Schaefer (coach), Fletcher Phillips, Tane Workman, Chris Horwell, Nick Finlayson, Dave Finlayson (co-manager), Mike van Woerkom (co-manager). Second row, Zac Caldwell, Aaron Oakly, Trent Lett, Hamish Finlayson, Chris Mason. Front row, Dylan Price, Rowan Yeo, Cody Linton, Dane Lett (captain), Joseph Robertson. Absent: James Hannon, Gus Wakeling, Jackson Kibblewhite. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

All the talking is over, it's now down to the real thing.

That's pretty much the attitude of the Dalefield men's squad as they prepare to open their 2015 Capital premier division men's hockey campaign with a match against Harbour City-Tawa at Clareville tomorrow.

The game is starting at the earlier time of noon so as to allow players and spectators to watch the action in the Blacks Caps World Cup quarter-final cricket match with the West Indies.

Much has been made - and rightly so - of the quality in the Dalefield line-up and, what's more, they are all but 100 per cent local. Goalkeeper Fletcher Phillips is the only player not to have either played for Dalefield previously, or had their early hockey education in Wairarapa, although the bulk of them have been playing for Wellington-based clubs in recent times.

Their return has been not only been prompted by a desire to see Dalefield succeed, but to lift the profile of Wairarapa hockey as a whole and nobody knows better than them that neither objective will be obtained if they don't have regular success on the field.

Strong as the team looks on paper, however, it would be unfair to expect a top-notch performance first time up. With many of their players still living on the other side of the Rimutakas, they have only managed a couple of training sessions together as a team, and the "friendlies" they had with Northern United and Palmerston North Old Boys at Clareville last Saturday represent the extent of their match practice.

The results of both those games were favourable for Dalefield, but while coach Willie Schaefer was pleased with how they performed he is also quick to emphasise they will need to go up to another level to foot it with a Harbour-City Tawa side which has a reputation for being quick and mobile, and capitalising on opposition mistakes.

"Individually, I don't doubt we will compete with anybody, but it's teamwork which wins matches and we still have a way to go in that regard," Schaefer said. "There were a lot of occasions last weekend when the final touch or the final pass let us down and that's the sort of thing you have to get right. In terms of cohesiveness, we're still very much a work in progress."

Captaining Dalefield will be Black Stick Dane Lett, who will play in the midfield, and he will have several players with international experience, Junior Black Sticks Benedict van Woerkom, Trent Lett and Nicholas Finlayson, national under-18 representatives Joseph Robertson and Hamish Finlayson and New Zealand President's XI player Daniel van Woerkom.

They might be the so-called "stars", but practically all the squad members have impressive CVs. So much so that coach Schaefer sees one of the big attributes being the strength of the Dalefield bench with subs able to be made without the worry of weakening the playing performance to any degree.

"We will be taking 16 players into the match, all of whom we know can do a decent job for us. It's a huge plus to be able to say that," he said.