Tanner Cup U15 Hockey Tournament

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This is an annual tournament hosted by St Paul’s College. 16 teams from across New Zealand attend, and it is a great opportunity for younger players to test their skills against other keen hockey schools.

Our pool comprised Auckland Grammar, St Pauls, Wellington College and ourselves. As we play in Division Two of the local competition, regularly facing Year 12 and 13 players in 1sts XIs, we were not really sure where we were placed against teams of similar age and experience.

Our first game was against Wellington College. We quickly found our stride and won this game confidently 4-nil. This was a great way to start off the tournament. 

Our next game was against the favourites in our pool, and we knew it would be a tough but winnable game against Auckland Grammar. This was a very tense game, but we kept them at bay until late in the game when they got a couple of quick goals in to win 3-1.

This meant we had a must-win game for the afternoon if we wanted to make it to the top 8 - which was our goal for the tournament. We faced St Pauls, who had also had a win over Wellington College and a tight loss to Grammar - we knew we had our work cut out. This was even more difficult when two players locked themselves in the toilet block 15 minutes before the game. Some quick thinking by management and a helpful caretaker ensured we got the full team on the turf - but only just in time.

Eddie Weir got an early goal within the first minute of the game. This was just the start we were after, but we knew it would be hard work for the entire game. We rolled into halftime with a 1-nil advantage. And then the three-quarter break - still 1-nil. There was a battle throughout the game, and many kilometres were covered as possession continued to change between two teams that both really wanted this one. Fortunately, the win was ours, and Eddie’s early goal was just enough to get us through. Top 8 for us. 

Our evening was spent at the formal tournament dinner, which gave us a chance to socialise with the other teams. We were also privileged enough to listen to and learn from three past and present Black Sticks — all of whom were coaches at the event.

Our next game was against St Andrew’s College, one of the favourites to win the tournament - but a win would see us in the top 4. Going 2-0 up at halftime was a perfect start but we may have used up all our hockey luck and lost to St Andrews 3-2 in the very last seconds of the game. This was a heartbreaking result, but we knew we’d pushed this really high-quality and experienced team to the limit.

This left us playing Otago Boys for our final game of the tournament—a great result for Otago hockey to have two teams make it into the top 8 at a national competition. We’d left it all out on the turf in the morning, so we didn’t quite execute our final game. Otago Boys took the win 1-2. It was a really close game all the way.

Our final placing in the tournament was 8th, which makes us one of only three McGlashan teams to attend Tanner and finish in the top 8. Many players from this year will be eligible to attend again next year, which is pretty exciting for McGlashan Hockey.

Coaches awarded Charlie Falconer the Player of the Tournament. He helped guide the team and get the best out of his younger teammates while also driving the team through his own play. Charlie now holds the McGlashan record for the most appearances at the Tanner Cup—with 20 games.

A special thanks to our coaches Tom Meder and Nick Friedlander for all their hard work and support this year. 

Also to our sponsors and all the parents who travelled to Hamilton to support us, we really appreciate the sideline support.