State Hockey Championships: Tamworth men finish seventh at state championships

Before the tournament more than half of the side hadn't played for the Tamworth 1's at opens level.

"It's promising signs for the future," Farmilo said.

They sealed their seventh placing with a 3-2 win over Northern Beaches & Sydney on Monday morning, surviving a late scare after leading 3-nil.

"We didn't play very well," he said.

"We missed a lot of chances."

They started their campaign with a good 3-nil win over Sydney East on Saturday morning.

"That was probably our easiest game and it was good to get that win early," he said.

"We still played quite well the other three round games."

"Probably our last game last night (Sunday) against North West Sydney was our best game.

"We only lost 2-nil."

"They had a couple of really good short corner specialists and scored off two short corners."

Farmilo didn't really know what to expect going into the championships, but couldn't have been happier with how they performed, noting that the young players really grew over the tournament.

"Everyone's effort was excellent," he said.

"We defended as a unit and when we got the ball we tried to attack as a unit."

Where they probably fell down a bit was in their execution in attack at times.

"We probably worked too hard pressing and defending, and when we did get the ball in attack we were a bit fatigued," he said.

They were also missing a bit of impetus up front with Farmilo playing son Isaac in the midfield to give them a bit more strength and experience in the midfield.

He said James Riddell and Sam Clifton were "excellent" for them over the weekend.

Calvin Farmilo was also really good at the back as was Nick O'Connor up front.

Playing in Division 3, New England meanwhile just fell short of the silverware going down to Wagga Wagga 4-2 in their final. They had breezed into the decider with a 5-1 semi-final win over North West Sydney (2).