Post Championships Report from Ross Noga, Manager 2003 Junior Team

The National Junior Team has returned to Australia after competing in the Under 20 Div 3 Championships held in Izmit - Turkey between Jan 21- Jan 26. Unfortunately things started badly for the team in their first game against Belgium, they started with a flurry but somehow the tides turned and Belgium took total control of the game, final Belgium 10 Australia 1.

In our second game we faced the mighty Koreans and they dominated from the start and put 10 pucks into the Australian net with no reply from the Aussies.

We then faced Turkey in a game that had the Bronze medal on the line in front of over 5.5 thousand screaming,chanting Turkish spectators and the atmosphere was electrifying. Down 3-0 after 1 period the team battled back to be down 3-2 after 2 periods but 2 very lucky goals deflated the team and they fell 6-3.

In our final game against Luxembourg the team played their best game since we left Australia and if not for the outstanding goaltending from Luxembourg this would have been a blowout as we dominated in every area, final score Australia 3 Luxembourg 0. I have listed below the final placings but want to say that the Management of the NJT is very proud of the team's efforts and want to make special mention to the four players who received awards as best players of the game for Australia.

1) Mark Walsh ( Also named best player from Australia for tournament)

2) Brinn Lupton

3) James Keane

4) Oliver Rozdarz

Final Placings.

1) Korea- Gold Medal
2) Belgium- Silver Medal
3) Turkey- Bronze Medal
4) Australia
5) Luxembourg

Overall a good effort put forward by all after a very gruelling 3 week training camp and I know that some of the players who are still eligible next year will be hungry to return to the championships if successful in making the team to chase their goal of a gold medal.

Finally on behalf of the NJT we want to wish all of the other Australian National Teams best of luck in their upcoming championships.

News from the Junior Team in Turkey: Report by coach Stewart Hicks January 28

The National Junior Team have done it tough over here in Turkey with very strong competition from all countries competing. There have been a lot of distractions with armed guards and police escorts wherever we've been and an amazing crowd, especially for the Turkey games - of which ours was the largest (5000 people and national TV coverage).

The boys have worked hard as a team but unfortunately were disappointed not to have achieved more. We had a strong start against Belgium but after their goalie was knocked out early in the match they rallied and we were caught short a few times and couldn't get back into the game.

Korea were always going to be tough and I think we had the best first period against them of any team. It fell away after that with fitness being a key deficiency in our team's ability to consistently follow the game plan. Korea went on undefeated to win gold, the score with Turkey was a reflection of some generosity of the Koreans towards the end of the match more than the endeavour of the Turks.

The Turkey game in front of 5000 screaming local fans was a challenge and after an early 2 goal setback, coming back to 3-2 at the end of the second under substantial pressure was a real credit to the boys. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and a couple of unlucky breaks early in the third and the crowd behind them it was too much.

The final game against Luxembourg was rated as an easy game but with their goalie playing 2nd Div in Finland it was never going to be a cake walk (the Koreans had some 150 shots against Luxembourg for 17 goals). We battled early and hammered the goalie with a number of good scoring shots with limited success. Over time we wore them down and finally got on top of them to beat them 3-0.

Our player of the tournament for Australia was Mark Walsh from WA who was consistent throughout and has really come a long way from his experiences with the NYT last year.

Overall the trip has been a battle but with strong Aussie spirit we never gave up.

News from the Junior Team in Turkey: January 20

The team has arrived safely in Turkey, and are looking forward to their first game against Belgium on Tuesday (January 21).

News from the Junior Team in Slovakia: January 11

Received the following report from National Junior Coach Stewart Hicks on January 11:

"Our camp is going well. We played a Slovak 1st division team in the first week (yep - pretty ambitious!) and got thumped 26 - 2. We have since played an under 18 1st division team and after leading for 2 periods ended up going down 8-6 after things fell apart in the last period. The guys are in good spirits and things are going well. We have 3 more practice matches and 10 more practices before we leave for Turkey. I think we will be in good shape.

Its been snowing over the last few days, the team runs 1km in the snow every morning. They complain but everyone is getting into it.

Alf Phillips was fortunate to participate in a training session for goalies which was run by their national team goalie coach. We also have a session coming up where the team will be coached by the National Senior Coach of Slovakia (he coached their team to Gold in the World Championships against the big guns in 2002 )."