In 2021, the Under-18 National Tournament will shift back to an Association-based tournament (tournaments were split into regional and association based in 2019). We are excited to see both the A and B teams compete in the same tournament for the first time in a number of years. Both under 18 men’s teams will compete in the Vantage National U18 Men’s tournament in Hamilton from July 11th to July 17th. 

Joe Piggot will try and lead the Canterbury U18 A Men to another national title after taking the Regional Team to 1^st place in 2019, and Ben Grimshaw will be looking to test the B Team against other Associations top teams after taking out the U18 Association Tournament in 2019.

2021 Under-18 Men's Teams

2021 Representative Policy

Click here to read the 2021 CHA Representative Policy

One of the small additions to the 2021 Representative Policy is the Under 18 Player Eligibility Criteria.

Under 18 teams - Players being considered must be under the age of 18 as of January 1 in the year being considered and must also be 15 or over as of January 1 of the year in which the tournament is played. They must also be registered participants of Canterbury Hockey who live or school within the Associations boundaries and be eligible through Hockey New Zealand’s National U18 rules. Players who do not live or school within the Association boundaries but are registered participants of Canterbury Hockey will only be eligible for selection if there is a Memorandum of Understanding in place between Canterbury Hockey and the Association they are living and/or schooling in, following mutual agreement between the respective Association of the benefits it provides for the individual participant and both Association’s participants in general.

Reasoning:

There is concern that players who are living and attending a school in another association can register and play for a club in Christchurch and therefore make themselves eligible for Canterbury U18 representative teams.

• This creates an issue for neighbouring associations who could potentially loose a number of secondary school players from their local club competition and U18 representative program.
• Despite creating a deeper talent pool for Canterbury Hockey U18 teams, it will reduce the number of opportunities available to Canterbury based players.
• A main driver around removing regional teams in the U18 age group was to reduce travel and to encourage school students to stay and play in their home association.
• We believe this goes against Sport NZ’s Balance is Better messaging as it promotes excessive travel - which reduces recovery opportunities and impacts other areas of the athlete’s life and wellbeing.