The Lower South East Hockey Association took to the field on the weekend for round one of the 2023 season.

In the men’s competition, the sun was out with 2022 premiers Tigers taking on last year’s runners up West.

West was looking to get pay back for last year’s grand final result, while Tigers hit the pitch to keep their title.

The first quarter was interesting with both teams getting used to playing hockey again and restoring the hand-eye coordination, with both good and bad skills plaguing the teams.

Tigers with their full 11 players compared to West’s 10 had the upper hand early having multiple shots at goals but just not executing.

Tigers managed to find the back of the goals twice in the first quarter with West coming back and putting two goals up as well to keep it a draw after the first quarter.

The second quarter was a lot of back and forth play, testing each team’s backlines with piercing passes and classic skill errors that both teams took advantage of but could not convert to goals.

In the third quarter the competitiveness of both teams showed, coming out fighting hard for the 50/ 50 balls which created a lot of physicality and with tempers flaring the umpires had a lot to deal with.

Yellows cards were given to Tigers for tackles and arguing with the umpires, for the first time in the game West had the upper hand, finally having more players on the field than Tigers.

West used this opportunity well and scored another goal to make it 2-3.

For the remainder of the quarter Tigers repelled West’s advances and looked to regroup for a big last quarter.

In the fourth quarter, with tempers still flaring and Tigers looking to step up and take back the victory from West, it was going to be high intensity.

Tigers had something to prove and got their act back together and really started pressuring the West defence, with Chris Calliss and David Vine finding it harder and harder to keep them out.

Tigers, led by Connor Grant, got the opening they needed with a short corner given and were not going to let this one slip away with another goal to even the score 3-3.

The Tigers players found more yellows which significantly helped West and with two minutes to go scored a goal in the chaos of a penetrating ball into the circle.

Tigers would not stand for that and with the likes of some great individual skills from some of the younger players Tigers got a short corner on the siren, which Roy Hutchesson calmly saved and Jack Leishman cleared giving West the victory 3-4.

In the other men’s game Strikers 8 defeated Naracoorte – 0.

In the women’s competition, the Division 1 match had Tigers turning the tables with a convincing 4-1 victory over West.

Tigers celebrated the return of Morgan Cooper and the debuts of youngsters Lily McIntosh and Arabelle Searle in style, with Brooke Marcus scoring twice, Kaitlyn Nibet powering home a short corner conversation, and McIntosh having a day to remember with a goal on debut.

West had lost a number of quality players in the offseason and will be looking to rebuild this year, but they will still be a team to reckon with as the season goes on.

Tigers coach Aaron Mengler would be very pleased with the start his team has made after an intense pre-season with a team determined to go better than their third placing of the past few years.

Also in Division 1, Redbacks and Strikers met for the first round of the season.

Strikers had picked up a number of new recruits to bolster their team for the 2023 season, and this made for a very competitive game.

Redbacks held control for most of the first quarter, with Steph Wighton putting the first goal on the board with a strong hit from a short corner.

In the second quarter Redbacks lost some of their structure and opened up the game for Strikers to attack.

Ash Dunn and Chloe Boylan worked well for Strikers together and eventually a deflection goal was scored by Claire Moore.

Kate Fabian kept Strikers in the game shortly after, saving a penalty stroke from Redbacks.

Redbacks regained control in the third quarter, scoring a deflection goal from Lauren Manser early in the quarter.

Wighton worked hard in the midfield, chasing down any counter attacks from Strikers.

Fabian made a number of good saves and Redbacks missed a number of sitters which would have put the game away.

With 30 seconds to go, Eliza Beck was able to put another goal into the net and give Redbacks a 3-1 lead going into three quarter time.

Coming out in the final quarter, Redbacks were caught off guard and Strikers were able to score an early goal to keep them in the game.

Redbacks again struggled to maintain their structure and this kept a determined Strikers in the game.

A final deflection goal from Claire Moore and great keeping from Fabian resulted in a 3-all draw.