It has been a massive first half of the year for our Club with all of our Senior age Groups involved and we have had some incredible results from both Women’s and Men’s Age Groups & our Tier 2 programme.

Our Senior Programme kicked off the year with both men’s and Women’s Teams getting back in the pool at the end of January in preparation for their season starting at the beginning of April.

Our Women kicked off their season in Wellington taking on Hutt Women and had a solid start coming away with two wins. The rest of the season saw the Women battle through with COVID impacting them frequently; but they came together each week and finally came away with a place in the Semi-Finals.

 The Women played their best game of the season - their Semi-Final coming up against Sea Wolf. After being down by 2 goals going into the final quarter the women showed determination and fight where they came away with a one goal win booking themselves a spot in the Gold Medal Match. The final game didn’t quite go the Women’s way and were up against top seeded Marist women who had lost only two games throughout the season. The Women ended up coming away with a very well deserved and hard-fought Silver Medal. A massive thank you to Richard Claridge and Julie Ellis for leading the team throughout the season.

The Turts squad this year was a very young one, and saw the arrival of plenty of new faces. The team approached this season with nervous anticipation, as they hoped to have their first complete season since the impact of COVID. In January of this year the team kicked off with a three-month preseason. Their National League campaign kicked off at the beginning of May, with a trip down to Christchurch to face off against the Canterbury Men's team. The team won both of these away fixtures in fiercely fought matches - that were not without some controversy! 

After that successful opening weekend, the Turts had a rocky ride throughout the rest of the regular season. The team went 4/8, with further wins over Marist and Hutt, while Tauranga got the better of the Turts on both occasions. With all the teams in the competition being relatively even on paper and in their results against each other, it came down to the final few games to determine placement. Our Men ended up placing 3rd after the round robin, and would match up against the Hutt Men in the National League Semi-final. This game was a close fought battle, and the Turts fought through to the final whistle, but ultimately went down by one goal. The final game of the season was against a similarly anguished Marist Men's team in the battle for third, where Marist showed their experience and earned themselves a bronze medal. 

The Turts ended up finishing fourth in what was another tough season. Their squad is still incredibly young, and has a very bright future ahead. We wish to thank everyone who supported throughout the season; Sefa and Dylan as coaches, Megan for being an amazing manager, Devon for all the help in the gym.

While the National League Competition was being played our Tier 2 Men’s and Women’s competitions were also running in three tournament style weekends. Our RJB Men were the reigning champions of 2020 and 2021 and were looking to secure a third consecutive title. This year we had a youth Development Men’s team entered into the competition which allowed many of our U21 and U18 Men’s players the opportunity to play at a higher level. This team showed their strength, speed and stamina throughout the three tournaments and took out the entire competition for 2022 taking out our RJB Men’s team in two of the finals. Our men’s teams finished 1^st and 2^nd respectively. Thank you to our Coaches Logan, Rob and Sefa and managers Megan and Tim for their hard work throughout the season.

We also had our first Tier 2 Women’s team entered into the competition which gave our U18 and some Senior Women a chance to gain some more experience and play some additional games leading into their age group seasons. The Women had an enjoyable season and learnt a lot throughout the season. A big thank you to Rachael who stepped in as a player / coach and Felicity for managing.

Next saw our U18 Men and Women’s Season get underway. The season was a disrupted for many of our players again due to COVID and senior commitments.

The Auckland League Competition saw the teams finish the week before Nationals with our Maroon Men and Women taking out Gold, our Black Men taking out 4^th, White Men 5^th and our Black Women 7^th.

The U18 National Champs this year were held in Christchurch which saw our Maroon Teams and Black Men’s team attend with our Women competing at the Div 2 Nationals held in Auckland.

It was a very successful end to the season for all of our teams. Our Black Boys coming away with a Top 8 finish while both our Maroon Teams and Black Girls teams went through the competition undefeated with all three teams taking out their respective titles with our Maroon teams both dominating their final. Darcy Spark, Cole Johns and Isabella Coughlan-Tovia were all named MVP of their respective divisions. A massive thank you goes to all of the coaching and management staff who put in a lot of effort over the season – Coaches Ricky, James, Sam, Michael, Rachael and Kaitlin and mangers Megan, Tim, Marie, Melissa and Sarah. Also, a massive thank you to our admin ladies who spent 5 hours rebooking flights for our maroon women who had their flight cancelled a few hours out from travelling. Seven of the girls were booked on seven different flights over 24 hours – a huge mission but one that the girls were grateful for especially taking the gold at the end.

The final competition for our Senior age Groups has been the U21 Nationals held only a day after our U18s arrived home. With the Youth World Teams heading overseas shortly after the completion of this event, the NZ named club players were unable to play for their club. This gave several players the opportunity to play in this age group.

Our Women’s Team came into the competition down 4 main players due to but did not let that stop them. The team had a slow start to the competition BUT definitely saved their best till last! The team earnt themselves a spot in the Semi Finals to take down Marist by a narrow margin of two gaols. The team came up against the NZ Youth Team in the final. The NH team came out ready to play with the girls taking the lead early in the game and holding it throughout taking out the Gold Medal and the U21 National title – Sarah Stewart was named MVP. A huge accomplishment for this group of girls from North Harbour.

Our Men had a tough competition with 6 of NH men involved in the NZ Youth team. After a narrow loss by one goal and a tie in another game the Men were set to play-off for Bronze against the NZ Youth Men. The Men held their ground coming away with a 2-goal win to take out Bronze. A big thank you to our coaches Sefa, Richard, James and Chelsea and managers Tonya and Dino for their efforts.

What a first half of the year for all of our teams! We are now getting underway with our U16 Teams all training and off to compete in Nationals in the October School Holidays and our U14 Season kicking off in Term 4. All the best to everyone – lets go Harbour!

Article added: Tuesday 06 September 2022