29 May 2023
The DHS 1st hockey team wrapped up an undefeated season at The Coliseum, their new Astro, on Saturday, with a hard-fought 4-1 victory over a spirited Kearsney team. That score, though, doesn’t do justice to the efforts of the visitors, who were level at 1-1 when the fourth chukka began.
It was a big match for the home team for a number of reasons. The first of those was the aforementioned opportunity to finish the season with a clean record at home. Secondly, the game took place on School’s Founders Weekend and, thirdly, it was also the last home game for the side’s three matric boys.
A loaded side
That last point is quite the eye-opener. This is an exceptionally good DHS team, with six of their players named in the KZN Coastals under-18 A team, yet most of them will be back in the blue and gold in 2024.
Next year’s team will, however, lose captain Lerou Dithlakanyane, an exceptionally skilled and versatile player. A member of the African champion, South African under-21 team, and also in the South African men’s indoor squad, Dithlakanyane has provided coach Michael Baker with the rare luxury of being an exceptional plug-in-and-play option anywhere on the field.
Fittingly, the skipper scored twice in his last game on the blue and gold Astro, coolly netting two penalty strokes.
It wasn’t a vintage DHS showing, to be honest, though. Kearsney had a lot to do with that. Unfortunately, load-shedding did, too; the lack of electricity prevented the Astro being watered, with the biggest impact of the dry surface being felt at penalty corner time.
Primarily, though, Kearsney showed they have upped their game in recent weeks. They played with greater intensity than they had exhibited earlier in the season, which was an absolute necessity against a team that, at its best, plays a quick passing, fast game, which utilises the entire field.
Also, a standout performer on the day was Matthew Mendes de Oliveira, one of three Kearsney boys who was recently selected for the KZN Coastals under-18 A hockey team. He was immense from start to finish, delivering a commanding performance in the midfield for the visitors, which undermined the usually slick passing of DHS.
“We just weren’t connecting at the same level that we normally do,” DHS Director of Hockey, Michael Baker told Pinnacle Schools after the match. “Lots of turnovers.”
His plan, he said, was to work Kearsney’s key players hard with an intense pace in the hope that DHS could come on strongly late in the game.
“We were keeping them in the game”
“They have some really good key players,” Baker said. “We were keeping them in the game, but I thought the intensity was really high at the start. I wasn’t sure how those players would manage. But I was still able to take Lumi Matwele and Lerou off [for some rest].
“I was playing my cards for the fourth chukka, and it worked out in the end.”
The lack of finishing by DHS served to encourage Kearsney, he said. Especially in the second chukka, when they levelled, the Botha’s Hill boys looked dangerous on the counter-attack, and Horseflies’ keeper Keelan Henry needed to be sharp and make a number of good saves to keep them his team in the game.
Did the pressure of playing at The Coliseum on Founders Weekend get to his team? Baker said, if anything, he felt it helped pull them through to victory.
“Maybe that helped us in the last chukka. It was our matrics’ last home game, our last home game, to end the game unbeaten on The Coliseum turf.
“It was our goal to finish the season unbeaten at The Coliseum. Maybe that’s what gave us that little bit of energy going into the last chukka.”
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