Hockey masters go back-to-back at state championships

FAR North Coast has taken out the title at the NSW State Masters Championships for a second straight year, with former Olympian Grant Smith leading the way for the over-49 to 54 men’s age division.

The team came up against former Kookaburras teammate Brent Livermore when they defeated Sydney East 2-1 in a hotly contested final at Moorebank.

Smith won a bronze medal as a member of the Australian men’s hockey team in 1996 with Livermore joining the team the following year.

Livermore went on to win a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 with a gold medal performance at Athens four years later.

The FNC team was put together by James Walker and was littered with local talent and other players from the ACT.

“It’s a great bunch of guys who have played at a high level and still enjoy the competition,” Walker said.

“We did have some ring-ins, but most teams do in this division. Sydney has a really strong base and everyone really wants to beat them.

“Brent Livermore was really good in the final, but [they] were fairly impressive in most parts of the game.”

“We had a very good team this year, though, and it’s good for Far North Coast to get these titles.”

The team came back from 1-0 down with Chris McCarthy scoring two goals in the second half.

They piled on the goals in the pool stage and went into the final having lost captain Scott Hamilton and key defender Brett Crawford with injuries.

Other local players in the team were Simon Brown, Andrew Newton and Peter Ryan, while Dave Brown missed the tournament.

“Most of the team play at Ballina now, but there is some cross-pollination where they’ve played for other clubs and been involved at Lismore as well,” Walker said.

“It’s also a group where just about everyone has played at state level or higher.”

Walker paid tribute to physio Sharon Dixon for helping them get through the tournament with most of the team intact.

“She is probably the most important part of the team; we went through plenty of strapping tape and had some injuries to key players by the end of it,” he said.