Ring-ins sour junior hockey titles

by Meredith Kelly

April 18, 2008

A RING-IN controversy has tarnished WA’s annual junior hockey state championships, with a country official alleging city sides are unfairly bolstering their ranks.

The championships, held at the Perth Hockey Stadium in Curtin from April 16 to 18, have seen boys’ and girls’ teams from across the state compete.

As the competition hit off, it became apparent some city teams had been borrowing players from non-competing clubs, said Hockey development officer for the Midwest region.

“On the one hand it’s good for our country girls,” Ms Cooper said. “It means they get challenged, but on the downside it’s unfair that these [city] girls, who play together all year long, are stacking their teams like there’s no tomorrow.”

Gabrielle Armstrong, who plays for city team Curtin Trinity Pirates, but has been filling in for her hometown Geraldton team during the tournament, said several city clubs had asked her to play for them.

“They approached me and asked if I would consider playing for them, but didn’t think that was very fair,” she said.

The annual junior state titles involves 25 teams, only seven of which hail from Perth.