City-Country flavour to highlight Cairns Hockey’s preseason

The cream of Far North hockey’s crop will join in a best-of-three battle for bragging rights as part of a President’s Cup shake-up.

THE cream of Far North hockey’s crop will join in a best-of-three battle for bragging rights as part of a President’s Cup shake-up.

Four teams will play each other across three weekends of top-quality hockey, which will showcase the best players from Cairns and the Tablelands.

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Senior players will combine to make three teams – Cairns, All Stars (players not born in Cairns) and Tablelands – while the next generation of hockey stars will play in an under-18s team.

Cairns Hockey Association’s regional coaching and competition director David McNeil said the format would allow for further development of the association’s best juniors.

Deyonte Fraser, pictured playing for South Cairns, will play for the All Stars. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE.

“This is the first-time preseason training has not been club-based and will go a long way in assisting the development of our programs throughout the region,” he said. “There will be a real City v Country feel in many games and although it’s mate v mate, I am sure the competition will be fierce.

“It also provides the opportunity for the development of our umpires and technical officials, an opportunity not provided in the past.”

Queensland and national junior program squad member Jayden Atkinson said it was an opportunity to play quality hockey against teammates.

Jayden Atkinson, who was last year named in the Australian Schoolboys Under 17 Hockey Team to tour South Africa, will play for the under-18s. PICTURE: JUSTIN BRIERTY

Cairns, All Stars and the under-18s have been named, while Tablelands and women’s squads will be announced this week. 

All three rounds of the regular season will be played on Friday nights, starting February 15 at 6pm, with finals on Saturday, March 9.

Round 1, February 15: U18s v Cairns at 6pm, Tablelands v All Stars at 7.15pm.

Teams (as of February 5, 2019).

CAIRNS: Nigel Giacomi, Peter Rowe, Cameron Anderson, Ryan Coffey, Darren Born, Callan Short, Jacob Raymond, Glen Geraghty, Jarrod Holmes, Matt Sperring, Sam Watson, Mica Darbyshire, Kiarnan Coyle, Brodie Quirk, Nathan Gill, Damian Agius. Coach: Mitch Birt.

ALL STARS: Brent Garske, Deyonte Fraser, Adam Catalano, Marc Hinton, Dan Ginnaw, John Gibson, Nick Waters, Apara Brewster, Daniel Pittendreigh, Michael Shaw, Khalid Kochi, Morgan Cochrane, Naim Santoso-Miller, Lachlan Brown, Rowan Hope, Aiden Schenk. Coach: Wes Ferns

UNDER-18s: Matt Reichardt, Declan O’Brien, Connor Gordon, Liam Whipp, Lachlan Stanley, Ashley Raymond, Tom Fincham, Jayden Atkinson, Caleb Simpson, Cade Coghland, Aden Conlan, Alistair Mais, Josh Sutton, Ashton Winkel, Brayden Naess, Dylan Folpp, Ashton Schenk. Coach: Alan Atkinson.

TABLELANDS: Squad announcement expected this week.

Originally published as City-Country flavour to highlight Cairns Hockey’s preseason