Between 6th and 9th July 2023 and best Under 18 players in Australia (from Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales) descended into the Ice Arena to join South Australia for the 2023 Syd Tange Under 18 National Championship. Unfortunately Australian Capital Territory withdrew late. Each of the 5 teams played 4 round robin games before 2 semi finals to decide who would play in the Gold medal game. In 2022, Victoria beat Western Australia in overtime in the Grand Final.
This year Western Australia looked the team to beat. Host state South Australia but in a reasonable performance in the first round robin game to go down 6-3, and managed a confidence boosting win against Victoria, but could not hold on against fast finishing New South Wales who came over the top to win 6-5. In the semi finals, it would be Western Australia beating Queensland 4-1 to go through to the gold final, and New South Wales beating Victoria in a close one 4-3 to challenge Western Australia. On the Sunday the consolation final between Queensland and Victoria went Queenslands way winning 4-1. In the big one, Western Australia showed why they were the favourites and powered on to win 7-2 over New South Wales.
Only a very very small component of the photos taken at the event are represented on the website (that’s because there are about 400 each of the 12 games covered). These are photos shown here are from Games 1-4 played on the Thursday 6/07/2023
Game 1 – Queensland 1 lost to Victoria 6
Game 2 – Western Australia 6 def South Australia 3
Game 3 – New South Wales 5 def Queensland 2
Game 4 – Victoria 4 lost to South Australia 5
