Ehren Hazell's NSW Pride men's side will host Hockey Club Melbourne in the Hockey One semi-finals after completing an undefeated pool campaign with a five goal shut out of Brisbane Blaze in their top of the table clash in Brisbane on Saturday.
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A four goal second half blitz set up the 5-nil victory as the Pride wrapped up the minor premiership.
After Lachlan Sharp had put the Pride ahead two minutes into the game, Ky Willott struck in the third quarter and was successful with his conversion to stretch their advantage to three goals heading into the final quarter.
Tom Craig then iced the victory with a sensational goal in the final seconds of the game, which he also converted.
Hazell was the orchestrator, showing great vision.
After getting the ball on half-way he spotted Craig tearing down the pitch on the opposite side of the field, and threw a perfectly-weighted overhead into the circle.
Craig ran onto it and then lobbed the ball over the keeper.
With only seconds on the clock, Hazell said everyone was yelling at him "to run the ball to the corner and waste some time". But after seeing Craig out of his periphery, and knowing how fast he is and that no-one would have expected the overhead, he thought he'd throw caution to the wind, so to speak.
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It was a spectacular finish to a strong performance from the Pride, the margin of the win "very unexpected", Hazell said, given the calibre of their opposition.
Saturday was his first game for the Pride for a few weeks, and he said it was good to get back out there after a disappointing Sultan of Johor Cup campaign.
The Burras narrowly avoided finishing with the wooden spoon.
"We gelled as a team off the field but on the field we just couldn't get the connections," Hazell said.
He is pumped for the semi-finals, and said they will go in with a fair bit of confidence.
The Pride women's side featuring Alice Arnott and Kate Jenner weren't able to finish off their campaign with a win going down to the Blaze 2-nil.
Goals to Blaze captain Jodie Kenny in the second quarter and Madison Fitzpatrick in the third quarter proved the difference, the Pride notching just the one win.
