THE Lower South East region will be proudly represented by four players in the Under 15 State South Australian hockey team competing at the Australian hockey championships in Narellan, NSW next week.
Liam Delaney, Mason Hill, Connor Millhouse and Aiden Cameron have earned selection to play on the national stage in the 16-player squad.
All four have prepared for the competition through selections and training sessions every weekend since December last year.
With a testing build up behind them, the team appears in good shape and its nucleus has remained together for a number of years, with a strong knowledge of each other’s games.
Many in the line-up played in the state Under 12 side, which was undefeated on the national stage and will hope to replicate that feat.
Delaney is the youngest player from the Lower South East to be selected.
Having only started playing hockey to increase his fitness for football, Delaney has gone on to represent the state five times in the sport and has become a key-member of his Under 15 and Division 1 men’s Strikers Hockey Club sides.
He also has strong leadership experience at state level, after being the South Australian side’s vice captain and top goal scorer in both the Under 12 school boys side at the 2017 Pan Pacific games and the Under 13 state side in Hobart last October.
Delaney’s ability to score goals and to feed the ball into the danger area of the circle has once again seen him selected in the striker position.
This will be Hill’s second time playing as the goal keeper for South Australia, after he performed the role previously at the Under 13 level.
Hill defends the goals in both the Under 15 boys and Division 1 men’s competition for Strikers.
Millhouse will represent the state for the first time next week, after playing for Strikers for seven years.
He has previously played in association representative and zone championships sides, while a consistent 2018 season saw him earn best and fairest in the Lower South East Hockey Association Under 15 boys competition.
Millhouse said he is excited to play for the state and looks forward to the challenge in Narellan, where he will play a role in the back four as part of the defensive team.
For Cameron, this tournament will be the third time he has represented South Australia in the sport and the second time in this particular competition.
The West Hockey Club player said he feels prepared for the championships, after multiple trips to Adelaide in the recent months.
Cameron will be placed in the sweeper position, a key defensive role in the team.
After finishing in fifth position last year, the South Australian side aims to break into the top-four at the national competition.
To win the title, South Australia must win the majority of its five minor-round games to achieve a top-two finish in its six-team pool, which will earn a semi-final spot to chase a birth for the gold medal final.
The side will start the six-day campaign with two matches Monday – against the ACT and Western Australia Black – before the competition finishs with the finals on Sunday, April 14.
