Waratahs favoured for finals

Waratahs’ Tim Willis sparks an attacking raid against United.

Blainey Woodham

THE Waratahs are the team to beat leading into the Tweed Border Hockey league finals this weekend.

The minor premiers came back from a 1-0 halftime deficit to beat Kingscliff 5-1 on Sunday in a match-up that will be repeated in the major semi-final this Saturday.

Short-corner experts, captain-coach Tim Willis and James Walker, had a field day as Kingscliff, conceding penalty after penalty.

Tweed Daily News hockey columnist Richard Philip said Kingscliff lacked discipline, which led to their downfall.

“Coach Andrew Kirby was reasonably happy with his team except for the five short corners,” Philip said.

Kingscliff was playing without Matthew Prichard and Heath Fitzsimons, but they will be back for a major semi-final rematch this weekend, and Philip believes those two could make a difference.

Meanwhile, third-placed Murwillumbah United beat the Barbarians 2-1 in another match-up that will be repeated this weekend in the minor semi-final.

Had Murwillumbah won by 11 goals, the side would have leap-frogged Kingscliff into second place – and secured a spot in the major semi-final.

But the Baa Baas lifted after three consecutive thrashings to prove they may be able to deliver an upset on their day.

While the status quo remained in the final round of competition on Sunday, each of the competition's four teams will take positives from the hit-out and be confident of improvement in the games that matter this weekend.

Willis said Waratahs had plenty of improvement on Sunday's game.

“It was a pretty sluggish game,” he said. “But we managed to score when we got the opportunity and we are hoping to improve a little bit leading into the finals this week.”

The Waratahs will welcome Josh Alcorn and goalkeeper Mitchell Paron back into the side for the major semi-final.

Willis wanted a rock-solid defensive effort this weekend to secure a week off and straight into the grand final.

“We don't want to be coming back to play a sudden-death game in two weeks time.”

Saturday's finals at Murwillumbah: Waratahs v Kingscliff at 3.50pm and Murwillumbah v Barbarians at 5.15pm.