Hockey SA has booted Woodville from its men’s and women’s Premier League

A hockey club has been turfed from SA’s Premier League as the state’s body restructures its competitions.

Woodville Hockey Club will put more emphasis on developing its juniors including Lucas Hart, Chloe Kong, Emily Hart and Olivia Hart, following the club’s forced exit from the Premier League in 2019. Picture: AAP/ Keryn Stevens

Hockey SA has turfed Woodville from its men’s and women’s Premier League under a restructure of the competitions.

The state’s national body announced on its website this month it would reduce both top tiers from nine teams to eight from 2019 with an aim of making the competition more fair.

Woodville’s men’s did not win a game this past season and finished bottom, while its women also finished at the foot of the table, but claimed two victories.

The club’s top teams will be in the Metro One competitions next year.

Woodville president Gary Boseley said it was disappointing, but would now allow members to focus on developing juniors.

Lucas Hart, Emily Hart, Chloe Kong and Olivia Hart are part of Woodville’s junior program. The club will focus on developing the juniors next season as it will not have teams in the Premier League. Picture: AAP/ Keryn Stevens

Boseley was confident it would not cause an exodus of players and the 60-year-old club would build itself up again.

“Obviously as a club, it’s quite disappointing,” Boseley said.

“But we were struggling at that level and we needed to take some steps to rebuild.

“The players we’ve got want to do better and we are a pretty strong club when it comes to passion.”

The Peckers field mixed-gender teams in the under-11, under-13 and under-15 competitions.

Boseley hoped to add an under-18 side next season and would work with Hockey SA to attract more youngsters.

He also encouraged locals to get involved with the club.

“Part of taking the focus away from Premier League, we can put our resources into trying to attract juniors,” he said.

“Every Saturday morning we have a ‘come and try’ hockey day at the club and that’s been quite successful — we get about 30 kids down there.

“We will be sending coaches with a Hockey SA coach to schools in a bid to attract those juniors.”

A statement on Hockey SA’s website said its board decided to revamp the top tier.

The statement said reducing the number of teams would help with pitch utilisation and “improve the quality of the competition with no byes and fewer lopsided results”.

It said the decision to relegate Woodville “was not made lightly” and it would give the club a chance to rejoin the Premier League in the future.