“KNOWING this is our last chance, there’ll be a lot more fight, a lot more determination”.
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Last week’s women’s Premier League Hockey qualifying final loss to Bathurst St Pat’s stung Orange Ex-Services, deep, and skipper Chloe Barrett says the fact it’s now do-or-die from here on will be good for the side.
It makes everything simpler, at the very least.
“We obviously did want to win last weekend, but I think having the second chance might’ve been in the back of our minds,”
“Maybe we didn’t push ourselves as hard as we could,” player-coach Leanne Kennewell added.
“We get to host this final too, it always helps being at home,” Barrett said.
Ex-Services face Bathurst City in Saturday’s minor semi-final, with the winner to progress to the preliminary final against the loser of the major semi – minor premiers Lithgow Panthers or St Pat’s.
A notoriously physical side, Barrett said the blue and golds will need to be prepared for some push and shove from City, who she also thinks has been one of the most challenging sides to play all season.
“Definitely, some of the toughest competition we’ll face I think,” Barrett said.
“They’re a physical, tough side. It won’t be easy.”
So, the prudent question, how will the blue and golds stop Bathurst City?
“Defence,” Barrett said, simply.
“They’re very good in front of goals, when they get a chance normally they finish it off.
“So we need to defend well and stay composed, we can’t ball watch and really, just do the basics well.
“Bathurst City do tend to get away from sides if you let them. We looked a bit too far ahead and maybe expected the result to come against St Pat’s I think so we also need to make sure we’re staying in the moment on Saturday.”
Helping their side reach its potential is as much a motivator as anything else, Barrett and Kennewell agreed.
In recent years it’s become somewhat of a trend for Ex-Services to boast one of the strongest, or at least most talented, side on paper but still fall short come the post-season.
Last year, coincidentally, it was Bathurst City that knocked Ex-Services out of the premiership race in a tense preliminary final shoot-out.
“We’ve had several years recently where we’ve fallen one game short of a grand final,” Kennewell lamented.
“We’d love to go two steps further, definitely, we finished third last year. But one week at a time.”
Saturday’s minor semi-final starts at 1.10pm, at Orange Hockey Complex.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
