Chatham Wolves are the nine time champions of Manning men’s division hockey following an emphatic 5-1 victory over Port Thunder in the grand final.
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The Wolves controlled the game from the start to the finish, with four goals to Australian Schoolboy representative Wade Harry the highlight of the match.
Chatham opened the scoring through Luke Hough with a tight angle shoot on his back stick inside the first five minutes. This stunned the young Thunder side and they didn’t recover.
Chatham continued on the attack and were relentless, suffocating Thunder’s midfield. The press caused Thunder to cough up the ball in the middle of the pitch. From there Chatham moved with speed down the right edge in behind Thunder's defenders and earned themselves a penalty corner.
Wade Harry came to the fore at the top of the circle, scoring with a tracer bullet of a drag flick from the penalty corner battery, making it 2-0 at the 15 minute mark.
Thunder tried to get back in the game but were shut down by Hal Phillips and Keegan Jobson, who as usual did a power of work in defence.
In the second half Thunder started with a move down Chatham's left, only to be snuffed out by the Wolves. Off this turnover Chatham broke out on a counter attack and raced deep into Thunder's circle on the baseline. Here Harry from an acute angle hit a tomahawk shot that blasted in to extend the lead to 3-0.
Two minutes later the Wolves were at it again, another midfield turnover and another break out rush this time up the right side. Harry cut back to the top right edge of the circle and finishied off the play with an unbelievable upright back stick shot to the top left corner of the net. It was 4-0 and Harry had a grand final hat-trick.
At this point the game really opened up and was end to end. Thunder had some luck in creating chances only to be denied and turned away time and time again by Eamon Smith’s brilliant goalkeeping for the Wolves.
Ryan Payne finally scored a late goal for Thunder from a well executed plenty corner, making it 4-1.
With 10 to go Chatham marched forward winning another penalty corner. Harry finishing off any Thunder comeback with a rocket of a drag flick and his fourth, 5-1.
The Wolves were camped in Thunder's third of the field but couldn’t add to the tally.
Matt Doherty was outstanding in the middle for the Wolves in closing down the dangerous Bryce Philpott. Sam Ferguson, Daniel Sewell, Keegan Jobson all had strong games while Harry of course was the star of the show.