Can you say mouth-watering?
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If not, you’d better learn quick before this weekend because that’s the only way to describe this Saturday’s women’s Premier League Hockey all-Orange derby between Ex-Services and Confederates.
In the PLH’s modern era Orange has never seen a derby of this magnitude, not between these two sides anyway.
Both Confederates and Ex-Services boast three and one records and the two sides sit second and fourth on the competition standings, respectively.
Both units are pumped up tighter than beach balls as a result.
“In hockey circles, this game is being talked about all over Orange,” Ex-Services gun Leanne Kennewell enthused.
“Confederates are obviously in great form and I think we’ve shocked a few of our critics in the opening four rounds.
“Regardless of the result, I’m sure it’ll be a really good game and it’s great to see Orange hockey finally have both our women’s sides being competitive rather than just one.”
Statistics and past results are well and truly in favour of Ex-Services too, Confederates will have to overcome an awful record against the blue and golds.
Since re-entering the competition in 2012 Confederates have never beaten Ex-Services.
The closest the red and blues have come was a dour 0-0 draw in 2015’s final regular season round and they’ve lost the other nine encounters, the worst of those defeats was last year’s 11-0 rout in round two.
That zero scoreline has become a trend too. In the 700 minutes of hockey the two sides have played since 2012, Confederates have found the back of the net just twice while Ex-Services have scored 34 times.
It’s great to see Orange hockey finally have both our women’s sides being competitive rather than just one.
- Ex-Services' Leanne Kennewell
“The girls are very aware of that record too,” Confederates coach Fiona Reith laughed.
“It’d be nice to use it as a bit of motivation but I’m not really sure we’ve earned the right to do that just yet.
“We’ve never beaten Ex-Services but, like always, we’ll be being realistic about it. Anything can happen in these games though, we saw that last year after they beat us up 11-0 and then we really surprised them in the next one, which was only 1-0.
“Our whole side is really, really looking forward to it and I completely agree with Leanne, it’s great to see both sides in Orange doing well and I think it should be a great game of hockey.
“I do hope it lives up to its potential because when both sides are playing at a good standard and going really hard at each other, it makes for a great game to watch.”
Ex-Services will reportedly have a handful of players from their top side out while Confederates will be without NSW under 15s representatives Pip Mannix and Heidi Townsend. Saturday’s derby kicks off at 12.30pm.