Following the conclusion of the Greater Northern League home-and-away season, The Examiner sat down with the competition's Northern presidents and discussed their results.
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QUEECHY PENGUINS
Jordan Reid
The Examiner says: Queechy's finals positions were rarely secure this season, with the men only leaping into the final four last weekend but both sides are now ready to give the premiership a crack.
How did you see your season?
It's been a very rare season but to have the sides bond together, come out of that long period ok and put themselves on the park for an extended period of time and keep the faith, keep building, keep to their systems and stay strong to get into that finals position is an awesome statement for our club. We are really looking to do some damage in the finals.
Were the results expected?
On the men's side, there was an expectation there with the guys that we were putting on the park that we would make at least this sort of area. I think we are probably a little bit disappointed that early on we couldn't get the results we wanted. I think it would be fair to say our women's team as well, they would have liked to have been a bit more secure earlier but any time you make finals, it's a great statement as to the health of the competition that it was so tight and right until the last round, there were so many teams that changed places, caused upsets and showed their own development.
How has the shortened season worked for you?
It's had some unique challenges but it's been positive. The number of young people we see in the teams and everyone's been able to come back and field some sort of a strong, competitive side. I think there's been a very healthy competition and that will only grow next year as we hit some more normality. The spirit of the game since we came back has been fantastic, everyone's been really positive, it's been really fantastic to see across the board that everyone's missed hockey and we've come back with the right attitude - being competitive but also played in the right spirit.
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
SOUTH LAUNCESTON
David Hickman
The Examiner says: The Suns cruised through the men's competition with just one loss but were brutally knocked out while sitting on the sidelines with a final-round bye in the women's.
How did you see your season?
The girls are bitterly disappointed - so close and yet so far away. Two weeks ago I thought they've got third spot, given the games that were to be played I thought they would still scrape in but results didn't go our way and they missed out. But it was one of those seasons, it was so short that any team that lost by a goal for instance, that's the difference. Losing two, three games, whatever we lost throughout the season, because it was so short there was no time to recover.
Hopefully we will get a good contingent along in Burnie to support the boys. I think all the teams but especially Burnie Baptist and our boys are hitting their straps at the business end of the season, so it should be a really good contest I think.
How has the shortened season worked for you?
It's been really hard to get that continual engagement from the players. Players have been reluctant to come in because it's been such a short season. With there being no national competitions this season, the players haven't had that drive, so I think that's been a factor. We've managed to put a very competitive GNL men's team and the other four teams have been competitive in their respective grades, so we are happy that we've been able to do that.
LAUNCESTON CITY
Alissia Pearson
The Examiner says: The Tigers failed to make finals in both competitions but some positive signs certainly shone through with the emergence of leading juniors and the men's side in contention until the final bell.
How did you see your season?
For our men's group to get a squad of 18 guys has been amazing. It's not nice having to pick players each week but it's nice to have a really strong pool to pick from. Certainly in our women, we struggled for numbers but everyone was happy to be there and gave 100 per cent each week, so for the season that it was I'm really happy with everyone's commitment and what we were able to produce.
It's been a good opportunity to utilise our juniors and give them an insight to what GNL is and what kind of standard they have to be at. Certainly all of our juniors have improved throughout.
Were the results expected?
For the women, I knew there'd be some wins and some losses and we took that really well, took that in our stride. For the men, from the pool of players that we had, we were a bit of a mixed bunch out of Tamar men and City men and being able to bring them all together and produce such a good season was a little bit unexpected. Towards the end of the season, we were really hoping to get into finals which unfortunately we didn't.
How has the shortened season worked for you?
I think we've done a really good job with our division two and three combining them on a Sunday, I think that's worked really well for the season that it's been. It would have been nice to have a few more rounds, particularly for the price that we are paying but I think we've done a really good job with what we've had to work with.