By JARROD POTTER
CANNONFIRE will be prominent in school state hockey this year with Casey Cannons’ Tristan Chaffey set to ignite his representative journey.
Chaffey, 15, from Pakenham, was selected in the final 16-man School Sport Victoria Under-16 squad to clash for the national championship in Adelaide in August.
The Beaconhills College student has been playing for a decade and wants to emulate his hockey role model Matthew Swann – including always wearing Swann’s famous number 20.
Helping boost the profile of south east suburbs hockey is another bonus for Chaffey making the SSV team – as it helps show the metropolitan centric hockey community the outer areas are just as capable.
“It was pretty cool to make the team,” Chaffey said.
“It’s very good, very strong.
“You don’t see many athletes out here – since you have the Youngs and the Lights and T.J. (Tyler Jacobs) making the team for Under-12s – so it’s pretty good.”
Chaffey is the ultimate utility.
He played most of his junior career forward but now wants to switch defensively to help set up the play and bring his team mates into the match.
“Anywhere really – juniors I play full back, seniors I play forward,” Chaffey said.
“State level I play back and hoping in the future in seniors to move towards the backline – it’s the preferred position and I’ve been more of a distributor than a scorer.
“I’ve done enough scoring now – I’ve got something like 200 goals over the years.”
Outside of knocking off New South Wales, the true test of any Victorian school state team, Chaffey wants to develop the necessary skills to continue making state teams throughout his time in the junior ranks.
“I want to learn what I need to learn to make that team more often and future state teams,” Chaffey said.
“You can say ‘I know what I need to do’ but usually there’s stuff on top of that you need… extra things you need to learn… you’re always learning in this sport.”
Chaffey wanted to thank his mates, family and Cannons’ coaches and players Matt Guastella, Bryce Davis and Andrew Shelton for their help with his development.
See Chaffey and the rest of the Victorian squad in action at the School Sport Victoria, 16-Years-and-Under Hockey Championships in Adelaide from 9-16 August.
