TWO Coffs Harbour teams will represent the region as they travel to Grafton this season to contest the Grafton Hockey Association’s first grade competitions.

The Jetty Jets and Coffs Crusaders will contest this year’s Grafton Hockey Association’s first grade competitions.

The Jets will contest the men’s competition, while the Crusaders will contest the women’s.

The Jets and Crusaders are the premier teams from Hockey Coffs Coast and play a vital role in the development of local talent.

Both teams have been created with junior development as the core focus, as the head coach of both teams, Rick Fischer, highlighted, “The idea of creating combined teams has been around for some time and it finally came to fruition in 2019.

“Before that, a lot of Coffs-based players were travelling up to Grafton and playing with Grafton-based clubs.

“We wanted our members to play for a Coffs-based team and to give them the opportunity to play top-level hockey as a group.

“It’s a really positive thing for hockey in our area.”

Hockey Coffs Coast President, Graham Robinson agreed with coach Fischer’s sentiments.

“We’ve been really happy with how the hockey community has embraced these teams,” he said.

“We’ve created a platform for our local talent to play in one of the premier competitions on the North Coast.

“We hope to see as many people at the hockey centre for our home games as we can.”

The Jetty Jets had to sit out the 2020 season due to COVID-19, but now the team has been training hard and have a few new faces and junior players coming through the ranks.

The Jets will look to Kieran Marshall, Sam Ash and Travis Ford to help steer their young squad around the park.

The Jets started their season with a 2-2 draw against Barbs Hagars.

The Coffs Crusaders started their campaign fresh off a win in the 2020 season decider.

There’s been some changes to their roster in season 2021 but a strong core group of players will make sure they are more than competitive.

They’ll look to Tania Pollock, Emma Brownlee, Hayley Fischer and Breah Fischer to control field position.

The Crusaders started their 2021 season with a 1-0 victory against Sailors Roches.

The Crusaders now take on McAuley White on Saturday afternoon, while the Jets play City Bears Village Green Friday night.

 

By Aiden BURGESS