NSW U18 hockey champs: Teams, players to watch this weekend

Plenty of big names will feature in the upcoming 2021 NSW U18s Girls Hockey Championships. Here are some of the top players to watch.

A number of teams across NSW will be playing this Friday, Saturday, Sunday at the NSW U18 girls championships.

There will be plenty of big names on display as the 2021 NSW U18 Girls Field Hockey State Championships comes to the Northern Rivers.

The U18s girls titles run over three days, starting Friday, and will be live streamed via dailytelegraph.com.au and associated local news websites including northernstar.com.au and thenewcastlenews.com.au.

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This year, the championships are being hosted by the Far North Coast Hockey Association at the Goonellabah Turf Complex and Ballina Hockey and Turf Complex.

To prepare, we’ve compiled a list of the top teams and players to watch in this year’s series.

“I would say there’s real competition,” Hockey NSW’s Richard Willis said.

“Everyone is looking forward playing for their association because they haven’t played for 12 months.

“To be able to play all over NSW again is fantastic.”

Top talent

Alana Kavanagh- North West Sydney

One of Hockey NSW’s fittest athletes, Kavanagh may just be the one to beat. She plays in the 2021 NSW Under 21 Women‘s Field Squad. Identified in the Hockey Australia Fixtures group at the recent U18 Women’s Field State Championships, Kavanagh plays as a defender with a great passing range.

Chelsea Holmes- Sydney South

Holmes is an attack midfielder with excellent ball carry and elimination speed.

A good goal shot and not one to overlook in these championships.

Makayla Jones- Goulburn

At only 16, Jones talent is incredible.

She is best known for her formidable reputation as a goal scoring striker.

Maya McGrath- Far North Coast

Not to overlook the local talent, McGrath is a hard working midfielder with excellent distribution skills.

According to Mr Willis, she’ll be the one to watch as he predicts she’ll instigate a lot of the play for the Far North Coast team.

Georgia Smithers – Goulburn

Last but not least is this tenacious defender.

With excellent reach, watch Smithers to read the game well.

Illawarra South Coast is one of the championships' front runners.

TOP TEAMS

Division One

Illawarra South Coast

This team was Division 1 champions in 2017 and 2019 with Illawarra quickly becoming one of the strongest associations on the girl's side of the competition.

The association has also garnered lots of success with multiple Illawarra teams in U13, U15 and U18 over the past few years.

They’ve also been awarded the Champion Girls Association at the Annual Awards Night in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and current Hockeyroo Grace Stewart was from the area (Gerringong).

Sydney South

This team were a huge threat in 2021 and runners up in Division 1 in 2019.

They have multiple members of the NSW U15 and U18 State Teams in their team this year with a mix of really talented players across the field.

Metropolitan South West 1

Metropolitan South West 1 were Division 1 winners in 2018, beating Illawarra and runners up to Illawarra in 2017.

The team came third in 2019 and are always around the podium in this age division with a large catchment of talented players to draw from. Watch out for this team to be a total threat and possibly cause a few headaches if they’re on their game.

Central Coast are tough competition to beat.

Division Two

Manning Valley 

This team was runners up in Division 2 in 2019.

Struggling from a bit of a rough start to the season, due to the recent floods taking out one of the hockey fields in Taree, hopefully the girls can bring some good spirits back to the region with a win.

Central Coast 

These girls were relegated from Division 1 in 2019, so meet a much easier pool of teams in Division 2 and make themselves firm competitors to beat.

Northern Sydney Beaches is a burgeoning reserve team.

Division Three

Illawarra South Coast 2, Metropolitan South-West 2 and Northern Sydney & Beaches 2

These three teams are all “reserve” or development teams but still have plenty of talent, mainly younger girls who are too old for Under 15‘s but aren’t old enough for the first-string teams, making them difficult to beat.