That was the scenario which unfolded for the Port Macquarie-Hastings Hockey Association’s under 15 girls State Age team in Taree last weekend.

Adding to the impressiveness of the weekend was that the team had to strip back their skills all the way back to the basics after the matches were played on grass.

Coach Loryn Mendham said while it was pleasing to come away with the title, it wasn’t completely unexpected.

“We were pretty positive about it; the one thing we were unsure about was that we were on grass and we play on turf mostly, but the girls all adapted really well and proved they were as good as they were last year when they won the 13s,” she said.

“Most of them have been in rep teams before, whether it was the 15s or the 13s last year,” she said.

“We had one new player that hadn’t played rep before so they all bonded really well together and worked as a team.”

They overcome the challenge of unlearning skills required for usual club hockey which is played on turf to adapt to grass hockey.

The outlook is positive for the future Port Macquarie representative teams as they move up through the divisions with a wealth of talent coming through the age groups.

The girls beat Canberra 3-0 and New England 1-0 on the first day before they backed up and beat Hunter 5-0 . They then played out a hard-fought 0-0 draw with Bathurst.

They then beat Canberra 3-0 in the semi-final before defeating Bathurst 1-0 in the final.

Mendham was proud of the way the girls adapted to the challenge of playing on a different playing surface to what they were used to.

“It’s a great leveller because it brings everyone back to basics,” she said.

“You can’t move the ball around on the grass as easily so you’re all in the same boat where you have to use your hitting skills, then trap the ball and then hit it again. On turf you can move the ball around a lot more, but if you do that on grass you lose it straight away.”

Mendham said the future for hockey in the region looked bright.

“This year both the boys and the girls 15s have won their respective age tournament divisions and the 13s are away this weekend in Wagga so hopefully they’ll keep it up.”

The team also won the Play By The Whistle award for the way they conducted themselves on and off the field.

“For us that was probably the better one to win,” Mendham said.

Captain Lucy Chappell said team morale was high which translated to the good performance on the field.

“We want to win it again.”