Men’s and women’s TPL season 2024 preview/launch
A fresh new look and a competition littered with emerging junior talent, hockey in the NT has never been in better hands. Hear from each club’s young guns ahead of the season below.
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Territory hockey has undergone a major makeover in the off-season.
No longer in the dark-ages, Hockey NT’s premier competition will now be in alignment with the rest of the nation.
Still under the Darwin Hockey League, The Territory Premier League will replace the A-grade competition, leading to a more streamlined and updated brand.
“We now align ourselves with the rest of the country and how they do things,” Hockey NT chief executive officer Jason Butcher said at the season launch.
“This change now allows us to offset other competitions such as Alice Springs, so that the kids out there can play some games up here throughout the year.”
With talent littered through the Territory, Butcher stressed the importance of the new model and how it would only benefit those involved.
“We actually had two players come up from Katherine and play in the DHL last year and at the moment we’ve got two youngsters from Gove who are away representing the NT at nationals,” he said.
“So this change means that our Premier League is for all of our regions and not just Darwin centric.”
Along with a new model is a new look.
The Territory Premier League is at the centre of this remodel and embodies the revitalisation of NT hockey.
“This is a new era for us,” Butcher said.
“All the work we’ve done in the last 12-months feeds into a lot of positive change.
“And part of this rebrand is a line in the sand moment and a symbolic point in time for us as a sport and in particular for our next generation of young talent who are staring to take over the league.
“So this is their league and we’re going to let them loose and see what they can come up with.”
*Round 1 gets underway Saturday, April 13 at MWT Hockey Centre, Marrara.
MEN’S & WOMEN’S TPL CLUB BY CLUB BREAKDOWNS
Banks
MEN (Billy Fahy, 21)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“It was a rough end to the season for us last year as we went down to the Waratahs in the grand final.
“Even though we lost, we learnt a lot as a team and individually, and I was proud of how we went, but this year, we’re going to work harder and be better.”
– Team news:
“Like almost everyone, we’ve got a bunch of juniors coming up to the team this year.
“Quite a few from U16s like Braith Canning and another Billy, who both look like good young players to watch.
“The team is always changing so it’s nothing new to us; I’ve never played with the same group twice.”
– Off-season happenings:
“We’ve been doing some work in our time off.
“We’ve had a few golf days together and some barbecues too.”
WOMEN (Emma Lodge, 17)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“Last season was a solid year for us.
“We had a lot of areas of growth and improvement and we can only go up.”
– Team news:
“A heap of our senior and experienced players aren’t coming back, so we’ve brought in a lot of our junior girls who have zero experience playing A-grade.
“We are going to be a really young team.”
– Off-season happenings:
“The vibes are good at the moment.
“Everyone is getting along well and we’ve been getting back into it on the field.”
Commerce-PINTS
MEN (Lucas Camara, 23)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“We finished dead-last last year and this season we’re gunning to get back into that top four spot, and have a good finals campaign.
“We just want to be as competitive as possible for the whole season.”
– Team news:
“We haven’t really had much of a change in players over the break, but we do have some youngsters who’ll be fresh off nationals, so they’ll be great to have back.”
– Off-season happenings:
“We’ve done a lot of flow-drills; trying to get our team connected and gelled together as best we can before Round 1.”
WOMEN (Zita Varatharajan, 20)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“We finished second last year after being beaten 3-2 in the final by Easts.
“This year we are going to fix that and take it out.
“We’re going to get back on our (winning) streak.”
– Team news:
“We have quite a number of new players for this season with a couple coming up from down south and quite a few who are ADF as well.
“There are some who haven’t played in over a decade who are starting back at it again and we’ve also got a few kids coming up from our juniors who’ll all be new additions.”
– Off-season happenings:
“A lot of our girls have been playing footy over the break. So that means lots of fitness.
“And in the last couple of weeks we’ve been getting back into training, mostly working on team stuff and cohesion.”
East Darwin Storm
MEN (Karl Hochman, 20)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“We finished up third last year after going down to a really hot Waratahs team.
“The boys were pretty upset with it, so we’re all keen to have a red-hot crack this year.
“We’ve been there or thereabouts for a few seasons now so we definitely want to get our hands on the cup this time round.”
– Team news:
“There are a fair few new recruits for us this year.
“A couple of big names are joining us; former Stingers Jamie Hullick and Nick Hill, along with ex-Adelaide Fire Isaac Farmilo.
“Adding to that we’ll have some junior boys who’ll filter in and out throughout the season.”
– Off-season happenings:
“Pre-season training has been going on for a while now, we’re all looking pretty sharp and our fitness is getting there and we’ve started stick stuff already.
“We’re already to go Round 1.”
WOMEN (Shaykoda Carne, 19)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“It was a really good year for us, we took out the premiership which was a well deserved one.
“We put in the hard work all season and had a few new recruits join us who helped us get over the line.
“As for this year, obviously we’re going for back-to-back titles.”
– Team news:
“There has been a pretty big turnover in players from last season.
“We’ve got some girls who played premier league in Sydney and Adelaide coming up which is cool.
– Off-season happenings:
“We’re all training hard and ready to get back out to the field.”
Nightcliff Tigers
MEN (Jason Talbot, 22)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“We finished fourth last year and I believe we can do better this year.
“We want to bring a cup home.”
– Team news:
“We’ve had a lot of juniors pushing through and a couple of them have made it into the team this year.
“And we actually have quite a number of our senior players leaving, so we’ll be a pretty young team.”
– Off-season happenings:
“We’ve done a bit of bonding and games and training and fitness. So a bit of everything to get us ready.
WOMEN (Casey Jong, 21)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“We had a solid season and finished well but definitely left room for improvement.
“Obviously we’ll be striving for a top four finish and go deep into finals.”
– Team news:
“We’ve got a big number of juniors with some senior players not returning.”
– Off-season happenings:
“Like a lot of teams we’ve been doing a fair bit of training in the off season.
“We’ve played some internal games against some of the younger ones, but mostly we’ve been focused on fitness and getting connections between new players.”
Palmerston Saints
MEN (Ethan MacDonald, 18)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“We missed out on the finals so we’re going to fight our way back into contention.
– Team news:
“We didn’t really lose anyone over the break.
“We’ve got quite a number of in and out players in the side which will make it a bit hard getting numbers for some games but hopefully we can push up some of our juniors to fill the spots.”
– Off-season happenings:
“We have just been training like normal, not much fitness in there yet but I’m sure that’s going to come this week.”
WOMEN (Brit White, 30)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“Unfortunately we didn’t make it to finals last year so that is our number one goal for 2024.
– Team news:
“A couple of our members have left, so we’ve had a pretty recruitment heavy off-season.
“We’ve brought on board a few new players and elevated some of our juniors.
“I’m excited to see Payton and Zara come into the team and show everyone what they can do.
– Off-season happenings:
“Our pre-season started pretty early.
“A lot of fitness and just general drills on the field.”
Waratah
MEN (Aidan Abel, 18)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“We fought our way to a pretty troublesome premiership in 2023.
“We struggled early and honestly didn’t play that well right till the end, and I’m hoping that doesn’t happen this year.
“I feel like we have every chance to go back-to-back.”
– Team news:
“We lost two big names and probably two of the most talented players the DHL has ever seen in Zach Rakkas and Dane Gavranich, we are hoping to have them for a few games though.
“We’ve got Robbie Duguid coming back from Sydney and a bloke from Perth and another from England joining the team.
– Off-season happenings:
“This off-season we’ve taken it a bit slow.
“We had a light schedule and have done a lot of reflection about what went well and wrong last year, so we can come into this year refreshed physically and with a clear head.
WOMEN (Phoebe Wiltshire, 17)
– 2023 recap and 2024 goals:
“We came third last year which was a bit disappointing.
“We had a brilliant start to the season but fell away a bit towards the last few rounds.
“The team is 100 per cent gunning for the cup.”
– Team news:
“Our team is pretty much the same.
“Like a few of the others, we’ve got some juniors who will most likely play a few games for us during the year; we’re looking good.”
– Off-season happenings:
“It’s been a big, big build.
“We’ve attacked fitness the last few weeks and now we’re getting around to the team stuff and team building activities.
“All in all the atmosphere we’ve got at the moment is great.”
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