Auckland will start as favourites in both the men and women's competitions as the National Hockey League enters the finals weekend.
The Auckland men qualified as top seeds after six wins (one by a penalty shootout) and one defeat and will take on Midlands in today's semifinal at the NorthHarbour Hockey Stadium. The defending champions beat Midlands 4-1 in round two and should be too strong for the team from Bay of Plenty, Counties Manukau and Waikato.
Auckland have improved as the tournament has progressed and English import Simon Egerton, who has scored nine goals to be second behind Hugo Inglis in the goal-scoring charts, has been in good form.
In today's other semifinal, the Southern Dogs will hope they can repeat their first-round win over Canterbury, who have the stingiest defence in the competition.
Auckland have been the dominant team in the women's competition, winning six of their seven games and going down only to Midlands in a penalty shootout in their second-round match.
They will, however, be without experienced New Zealand international Katie Glynn, who sustained a serious knee injury in Thursday night's 1-0 win over North Harbour and is expected to be sidelined for the rest of the year.
"I'm sure the team will lift and play for her," Auckland coach Jude Menezes said.
They should still have enough quality to dispose of Capital in their semifinal and have been building momentum since the competition entered the tournament phase this week.
"We started off the first round really average but we've been progressively getting better in each game and that's what you want coming to the business end," Menezes said. "I'm quite happy the way the team is shaping up and we're ready for the semfinals."
