Tamworth coach Tim Hardy could only lament their inability to convert their opportunities as their reign as open men's state champions came to an end in Newcastle on Monday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Losses to Metro South West and Lithgow on Sunday saw the Frogs miss out on the semi-finals, and the chance to defend the title they won in such memorable fashion last year.
In both it was a story of missed opportunities.
"We did enough to win all of our games but just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net unfortunately," Hardy reflected.
But while disappointed about their overall results, he thought the style of hockey they played for "basically a brand new team" was "really really positive".
It was always going to be a challenge with the calibre of players and experience they had lost from last year's side.
But on what they showed on the weekend and the young talent coming through he believes they are looking in pretty good shape for the future.
"Especially some of the young boys from the 2s that are coming through," he said.
"So it's pretty exciting. I think we're going to be strong for a fair few years to come."
The Frogs started the championships strongly beating North West Sydney 3-1 and Sydney East 5-1 on Saturday.
"We played really well," Hardy said.
"Sam Griffiths had an absolute blinder on the first day and kept us in it a fair bit."
Unfortunately Ehren Hazell injured his hamstring in the first 10 minutes of the game against North West Sydney, which hampered him for the rest of the weekend and was a big blow.
It meant they had one less rotation and had to rejig their game plan a bit being one of their main attacking threats.
"And obviously a player of Ehren's quality, that's going to make a big difference," Hardy said.
"But that sort of happens at these sort of tournaments, you've just got to deal with the punches and keep rolling."
They then faced Metro South West first-up on Sunday.
Hardy said the Sydney side probably would have only had six circle entries for the game in comparison to the Frogs' multitude but they couldn't capitalise and went down 5-1.
It left them needing to beat Lithgow to secure second spot in their pool.
Again they had a wealth of possession - Hardy reckoned they probably had 80 per cent of the ball.
"I think we had probably 17 penalty corners and a fair few one-on-one's but just couldn't convert," he said.
"Their goalkeeper just had a phenomenal game and we hit the post a few times."
The frustration was compounded when Lithgow scored in the last five seconds to snatch the win 2-1 and sneak into the semis. Although the damage had been done by then with the draw not going to be enough for the Frogs to advance (on goal difference).
The side they beat last year - Illawarra South Coast - went on to win the final 4-3 over the hosts.
Playing in Division 3, the results didn't quite go the way for a young Frogs 2s. They picked up just the one win, but were competitive in most of their games.
Meanwhile in the open women's championships at Macarthur, Tamworth finished mid-table in Division 2 after bookending their campaign with wins over North West Sydney (2) 8-nil and Manning Valley 3-1.
Inbetween they went down to Parkes 1-nil, drew 1-all with Coffs Coast and were beaten 3-1 by northern neighbours New England.
