North-West Graduates vs Derwent replay: Tasmanian Premier League hockey semi-final

Catch up on all the action from the Tasmanian Premier League men's semi-final between North-West Grads and Derwent, which featured an incredible comeback.

North-West Graduates capped an incredible comeback to steal a 3-2 victory against Derwent and earn direct entry into next fortnight’s men’s Premier League hockey grand final.

In a tale of two halves, Graduates looked a shadow of their normal selves and Derwent time after time created opportunities in their attacking circle.

But the Bulldogs’ fighting spirit was on hand once more, with Gobind Gill, Matt Lim and Jai Walker-Kidd key to them rising off the canvas from 2-0 down to find a final quarter penalty corner winner from the latter.

“We went away from our game plan in the first half and to Derwent’s credit, they dictated to us,” Graduates coach Stephen McMullen conceded.

“I implored the group to start to use our strengths and come back to the plan we developed.”

“Gobind (Gill) lifted in the second half after being a bit off, but it was a total group response from the players.”

“We’ve had some sickness this week so we can now get those guys back to normal and start to zero in on our finals plans.”

Earlier, Angus Boulton had opened the scoring for Derwent and Keegan Popowski scored their second early in the third quarter.

But Graduates found an instant response through Gill and second before three quarter time Olly Arnold popped up to level the scores and shift momentum back to Graduates.

It set the scene for Walker-Kidd to punish the Strikers from a set piece and force Derwent into a Preliminary Final against surprise Elimination Final winners University.

In a match for the ages, University came from two goals down with four minutes remaining to draw 6-6 with OHA, before claiming a 2-0 win in an engrossing penalty shootout.

After Oliver Smith had put the Ships 6-4 up with a stunning reverse stick goal, University’s James Dick found the perfect time to score his first goal of the season before skipper Ben Read net after the final siren to take it to penalties.

From there, University goalkeeper James Shephard made a name for himself with an incredible performance, twice recovering from conceding a penalty stroke to make the follow up save, while also denying Jeremy Edwards and Jo Murphy to keep a rare penalty shootout shut out.

University’s Paul Ancher and James Dick both scored their efforts with ease, while Josh Brooks’ effort was well saved by OHA keeper Henry Chambers.

Catch up on all the action from the men's semi-final between North-West Grads and OHA.