{"id":93446,"date":"2026-04-12T12:05:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=93446"},"modified":"2026-04-12T12:05:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:05:53","slug":"its-again-menlopark-versus-waterkloof-in-the-nwu-puk-series-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=93446","title":{"rendered":"It’s again Menlopark versus Waterkloof in the NWU Puk Series final"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Menlopark is riding the wave of brilliant performances this year. They will be looking to maintain that form against Waterkloof. Photo: Supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark<\/strong> and Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof<\/strong> will meet in the final of the NWU Puk Reeks <\/strong>hockey tournament for a third consecutive year.<\/p>\n

They booked their spots with resounding semi-final victories.<\/p>\n

Playing at HTS Middelburg<\/strong> on Saturday, the defending champions, Menlopark, underscored their dominance with a 9-0 thrashing of Transvalia<\/strong>, while Waterkloof cruised to a 6-0 win over Dr EG Jansen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Menlopark and Waterkloof were inseparable in the 2024 final and were forced to share the title. They met again in the 2025 final, and Menlopark defeated Waterkloof 2-1 to lift the trophy. Coach Brad Brook<\/strong>\u2019s side will be aiming to make it three in a row, while coach Omari Pienaar-Geyer<\/strong>\u2019s charges will be aiming to wrestle the trophy from Menlo’s grip.<\/p>\n

Menlopark goes into the final buoyed by strong performances in their previous outings. They reached the final at the St Mary\u2019s Waverley Hockey Festival<\/strong><\/a> before racking up four wins and a draw at the St Stithians Hockey Festival<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I thought we moved the ball really nicely. The girls weren’t individualistic; their game was all about passing and moving. They looked to find one another and expose the open spaces,” Brook said of Menlopark’s play against Transvalia.<\/p>\n

He also praised his team’s hard work, which prevented Transvalia from building play effectively. However, the most important part of Menlopark’s game was their ruthlessness in attack.<\/p>\n

“I’m very happy with the performance. Obviously, one or two things that we can still work on, but we’re all quite happy,” Brook said.<\/p>\n

Waterkloof, though, will pose a far stiffer challenge than Transvalia. Pienaar-Geyer’s team has been in good form. They reached the last eight at St Mary\u2019s Waverley and then added four wins and a loss at St Stithians to their record.<\/p>\n

“We stuck to our plan, moved the ball with purpose, and finished off with some excellent team goals,” Pienaar-Geyer summed up their play against EG Jansen.<\/p>\n

“I love it when we play with intent. Yes, we left a few goals out there, but I’m happy with a solid team performance.”<\/p>\n

Waterkloof dominated the midfield and denied EG Jansen room to venture into their half. They also controlled the tempo of the game, spending most of it camped inside Jansies<\/strong><\/em>‘ half.<\/p>\n

Mila Rodenburg<\/strong> showed a great hunger for goals and was almost unstoppable in the circle, scoring four of Waterkloof’s six goals. Two of those goals were assisted by Lenique Vogel<\/strong>, who also produced an excellent outing.<\/p>\n

Nicola Smuts <\/strong>and Kyra van der Walt<\/strong> scored the other goals, with Vogel, who was a constant presence in attack, adding a further assist on Smuts’s goal.<\/p>\n

The final takes place on 18 April at Dr EG Jansen.<\/p>\n

Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Menlopark 9-0 Transvalia
\nWaterkloof 6-0 EG Jansen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark and Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof will meet in the final of the NWU Puk Reeks hockey tournament for a third consecutive year. They booked their spots with resounding semi-final victories. Playing at HTS Middelburg on Saturday, the defending champions, Menlopark, underscored their dominance with a 9-0 thrashing of Transvalia, while Waterkloof cruised to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":93447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}