Four Canterbury teams will contest their grades at the week-long tournament in Hamilton.
The Cats beat North Harbour 2-1 to lift the Kirkpatrick Cup at the tournament last year.
Despite their consistency in past tournaments, the Cats haven’t won two national titles in a row since their four-year dominance from 1994-1998.
Cats head coach Andrew Hastie said their focus heading into the first game won’t be on winning the tournament.
“It’ll be lovely if we can get to the final again but it’s more on how we can play to get there,” he said.
“We’ll control what we can control.”
The Cats go into the tournament on the back of a successful Ōtautahi Cup, in which they won all three games.
After beating both Wellington and Otago by one goal two weeks ago, the Cats are set to play them again in the round robin stage on Sunday and Monday. Hastie said the team have analysed the previous matches and feel confident.
“We’ve gone through those matches and know what we need to work on.
“But I think the biggest thing was that we have gelled really well as a team since.”
Hastie, who played 68 games for the Black Sticks, said winning the Ōtautahi Cup was a great experience for the squad’s six new players.
“I was very pleased with how the new Cats played,” he said.
“We had to play with 13 players due to illness and injury so the way they worked with heart and passion was impressive.”
The Cavaliers narrowly missed out on the national championship final last year, finishing third. They go into the tournament on the back of two wins and a loss at the Ōtautahi Cup.
The Canterbury Beavers, who won the men’s tier 2 competition last season, are favourites to win their grade again. They beat tier 1 defending champions Otago 4-2 at the Ōtautahi Cup last month.
The Canterbury Barracudas will open their campaign against North Harbour on Sunday, and will be looking to improve on last year’s seventh-place.
- For the full draw and results, go to www.hockeynz.altiusrt.com.
- All turf 1 and St Paul’s games will be live-streamed at www.hockeynz.tv/sv/home.
