Premier League Grand Finals 2021: OHA Women and Derwent Men Win

The 2021 Premier League Hockey season came to a stunning conclusion at the Tasmanian Hockey Centre as OHA Women and Derwent Men were crowned champions with memorable Grand Finals Day triumphs.

RESULTS

Premier League Women 2021 Grand Final

OHA: 2 (Eloise Crombie, Julia Gunn), defeated Derwent: 0

Watch the 2021 PLW Grand Final highlights between OHA and Derwent by clicking here.

Watch the full match replay of the 2021 PLW Grand Final between OHA and Derwent by clicking here.

Premier League Men 2021 Grand Final

Derwent: 3 (Paul Ancher, Angus Boulton, Vaughn Bowen), defeated OHA: 3 (James Thomas, Sam McCambridge, Joseph Murphy) in an Instant-Win Shoot-Out.

Watch the 2021 PLM Grand Final highlights between OHA and Derwent by clicking here.

Watch the full match replay of the 2021 PLM Grand Final between OHA and Derwent by clinking here.

OHA claimed their 10th title in the last 20 years, also going back-to-back, with a 2-0 win over Derwent in the Women's Grand Final. The scoreline can be considered misleading as both sides attacked from the outset and it certainly felt like Derwent were unlucky to breach the Ships' net.

In fact, many of the early running and chances fell to Derwent, with Eliza Westland and Amelia Spence looking dangerous in the opening minutes, but OHA scored first in the 11th minute when Sofie McLeod's shot rebounded nicely for fellow veteran Eloise Crombie to score from an acute angle.

Derwent mustered nearly a dozen penalty corners over the course of the match, but failed to convert a single one, while the OHA defence stood firm thanks to the efforts of Player of the Match medal winner Isabelle Kruimink, who tackled and intercepted the majority of Derwent attacks before they could breach the circle.

It was a fascinating midfield battle all day between Westland and Spence for Derwent and Sarah McCambridge and Maddison Brooks for OHA, with neither pair really getting the upper-hand over the other. It was Brooks with the pivotal plays, however, as she laid on the pass for McLeod from which Crombie scored in the first quarter, and a direct assist for OHA's second goal in the dying minutes for Julia Gunn.

Derwent had pulled their goalkeeper to give them an extra attacker up forward, but OHA took advantage of the open net with Brooks' quick pass finding the deflection from Gunn inside the circle to seal the match.

In the Men's Grand Final Derwent survived constant twists and turns to claim the 2021 Premiership, their 7th of the last 20 years, placing them now clearly as the most successful team of the post-millennium era.

They started with a bang, as they so often did in 2021, with Paul Ancher scoring in just the third minute and Angus Boulton scoring their second on the stroke of quarter time to blow OHA out of the water early.

However, shades of the Semi-Final between these two sides just two weeks prior were seen as OHA grabbed a fistful of momentum late in the half and clawed one back from the penalty spot to James Thomas. Just minutes from the main break Sam McCambridge scored an equaliser to completely erase Derwent's fast start.

Deep into the 3rd quarter OHA took the lead with Joseph Murphy converting a penalty corner with a low drag-flick. With time running low in the final quarter up stepped Player of the Match medal winner Vaughn Bowen to burst into the OHA circle, twist and turn to open space for himself, and rifle a low shot into the backboard to bring the sides back level again.

That forced the match into a penalty shootout to decide the winner. After 3 attempts each OHA held a 2-1 lead and looked to be heading towards a victory. After 4 attempts they were back tied 2-2, and Henry Chambers saved Derwent's 5th effort to set up a dramatic chance for McCambridge to score the winning penalty.

Magnus McCausland learned from the last time he faced McCambridge in a shootout and this time saved the attempt to send the sides into an instant win shootout. Flipping the order forced McCausland to face the next attempt, which he saved again, meaning that all Derwent had to do was score to win.

Enter Joshua Mardell, who had had a quiet game by his standards and had already missed an earlier shootout attempt. The 2020 Association Best and Fairest winner was cool under pressure to slot the winning attempt past an advancing Chambers to deliver the title to Derwent.