Brilliant campaign has WA women in medal contention, WA men’s title defence over at country hockey champs

The WA Country women’s side will play for a medal at the Hockey Australia Country Championships after a brilliant campaign so far in Goulburn, NSW. The WA side recorded a 3-0 win over South Australia on Wednesday morning to record their fourth win of the tournament, but had already locked away a semifinal berth. The top four sides will play off in Friday’s semifinals to determine who plays in the respective gold and bronze medal games on Saturday. Lower Great Southern Hockey Association representatives Kathryn and Meg Slattery, Zali Spencer, and Felicity Ericsson are part of the WA team that is yet to lose a game at the annual championships. WA will either finish first or second in the standings, having scored wins over Queensland, Australian Defence Force, Victoria, and South Australia. In their other qualifier, they drew with fellow gold medal fancies and hosts NSW. They will face either Queensland or Victoria in their bid to progress to the gold medal decider. On Wednesday, Upper Great Southern’s Lucy Ward opened the scoring from a penalty corner before striker Ericsson double the advantage one minute later with a field goal conversion. WA maintained a 2-0 lead until a 52nd-minute penalty corner goal from Meg Slattery completed the victory. Kathryn Slattery scored twice in the 3-2 win over Victoria on Tuesday. She broke the deadlock in the 31st minute, ultimately handing WA a semifinal berth, and earlier made it 2-0, finding the back of the net in the second minute. Geraldton’s Holly Stubberfield opened the scoring in the second minute but Victoria quickly hit back to make it 2-2 by quarter-time. NSW led 1-0 in their clash with WA on Monday but Ward netted an equaliser in the 35th minute to help her side pinch one point. Meg Slattery gave WA an early lead against ADF on Sunday before they equalised but Eastern Districts’ Lauren Cope gave WA their second win of the campaign when she found the back of the net in the 23rd minute. WA made a brilliant start last Saturday with a convincing 3-0 win over Queensland, with Kathryn Slattery netting field goals in the 12th and 19th minutes before Geraldton’s Emma Bowen rounded out the result with a third-quarter strike. The WA Country men’s side have bowed out of medal contention after a disappointing campaign. WA finished fifth in the standings, winning only one of their five games, and will face SA in Friday’s fifth and sixth play-off. Entering the tournament as reigning champions, WA started well with a win over Queensland, but faltered from there. Bunbury trio Lachlan Overton, Brayden Dalton and Brodie Payton helped WA lead 3-2 at half-time before Central Great Southern’s Lewis Barritt scored to seal the 4-2 win. Roe Districts player Fletcher Taylor’s third-quarter goal was not enough as WA lost 2-1 to ADF the following day, then on Monday they lost 2-1 to NSW despite Upper Great Southern’s Liam Sweeney finding the back of the net in the first term. WA then played out scoreless draws against Victoria and SA to finish their qualifiers.