# 2017 Men's Premier Hockey League (South Africa)

The 2017 Men's Premier Hockey League was the 2nd edition of the Premier Hockey League, the annual tournament men's field hockey championship of South Africa.
The Maropeng Cavemen won the tournament for the first time, defeating the Drakensberg Dragons 3–0 in the final.

## Competition format
### Format

The 2017 Premier Hockey League followed a single round-robin format, followed by a classification round.
During the pool stage teams played each other once. The top four ranked teams qualified for the Classification Round. Team 1 played Team 4, while Team 2 played Team 3 in the two semi-finals. The two victorious teams moved onto the Final, while the losing teams competed for third place.

### Point allocation

Match points will be distributed as follows:
* 4 points: win by 3+ goals
* 3 points: win and shoot-out win
* 1 point: shoot-out loss
* 0 points: loss

## Participating teams

Each squad consists of 20 players, made up of 7 marquee players as determined by SA Hockey's team, with a further 3 players into their 20 from the "new generation" pool featuring the country's most exciting young talent. Coaches were forced to release between 4 and 8 players from the 2017 squads ahead of the draft.
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## Results
### Pool stage

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | WD | LD | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | –– Maropeng Cavemen | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 4 | +10 | 13 | Semi-Final |
| 2 | –– Mapungubwe Mambas | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 9 | Semi-Final |
| 3 | –– Drakensberg Dragons | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 6 | +2 | 10 | Semi-Final |
| 4 | –– Addo Elephants | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 6 | Semi-Final |
| 5 | –– Garden Route Gazelles | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 13 | −10 | 6 | |
| 6 | –– Golden Gate Gladiators | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 21 | −8 | 4 | |

#### Matches

* 25 November 2017 08:00
| Drakensberg Dragons –– | 4-0 | –– Addo Elephants |
| Heyns 23' Letuka 25' Swanepoel 0' Ntuli 48' | Report | |
* 25 November 2017 12:00
| Maropeng Cavemen –– | 0-0 | –– Garden Route Gazelles |
| | Report | |
| Penalties |||
| da Graca Abrahams Gabela Modise Futcher | 1-2 | Burger Coombes Norris-Jones Julius Mpopo |
* 25 November 2017 16:00
| Golden Gate Gladiators –– | 1-6 | –– Mapungubwe Mambas |
| Beauchamp 20' | Report | Abrahams 9' Scott 0' Jones 27', 32', 58' Paulo 43' |
* 26 November 2017 10:00
| Maropeng Cavemen –– | 3-2 | –– Addo Elephants |
| West 25', 55' Gabela 44' | Report | Hykes 3' Malgraff 36' |
* 26 November 2017 12:00
| Drakensberg Dragons –– | 2-2 | –– Golden Gate Gladiators |
| de Sousa 33' Heyns 48' | Report | Halle 26' Beauchamp 55' |
| Penalties |||
| Maddocks de Sousa Dart Gonzalves Philips | 3-1 | Coombs Cassiem Pike Hobson |
* 2 December 2017 10:00
| Garden Route Gazelles –– | 0-3 | –– Mapungubwe Mambas |
| | Report | Pretorius 27' Last 29' Buchanan 40' |
* 2 December 2017 14:00
| Addo Elephants –– | 4-2 | –– Golden Gate Gladiators |
| Christoffels 13' Mbekeni 16' Kimfley 26' Hykes 31' | Report | Beauchamp 53' Mohlaba 56' |
* 3 December 2017 08:00
| Addo Elephants –– | 0-1 | –– Mapungubwe Mambas |
| | Report | Last 28' |
* 3 December 2017 12:00
| Drakensberg Dragons –– | 0-3 | –– Maropeng Cavemen |
| | Report | West 12' Futcher 24' Modise 60' |
* 3 December 2017 16:00
| Garden Route Gazelles –– | 3-6 | –– Golden Gate Gladiators |
| De Voux 3' James 9' Norris-Jones 17' | Report | Coombs 21' Chong 35' Halle 37', 41' Pike 40' Beauchamp 53' |
* 9 December 2017 08:00
| Drakensberg Dragons –– | 2-1 | –– Mapungubwe Mambas |
| Smith 6' Heyns 42' | Report | Gonzalves 34' |
* 9 December 2017 12:00
| Maropeng Cavemen –– | 6-2 | –– Golden Gate Gladiators |
| Comerasamy 5' Panther 12' Abrahams 25' da Graca 36' Robertson 46' Cleak 56' | Report | Halle 35', 50' |
* 9 December 2017 16:00
| Addo Elephants –– | 4-0 | –– Garden Route Gazelles |
| Christoffels 9' Mbekeni 45' Bosman 57' Kimfley 59' | Report | |
* 10 December 2017 10:00
| MC | 2-0 | –– Mapungubwe Mambas |
| Futcher 4' Comerasamy 41' | Report | |
* 10 December 2017 14:0
| Drakensberg Dragons –– | 0-0 | –– Garden Route Gazelles |
| | Report | |
| Penalties |||
| Gonzalves Letuka Dart Ntuli | 2-4 | de Voux Coombes Horne Mulder |

### Classification stage

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 11 December 2017 | 11 December 2017 |
| –– Mapungubwe Mambas | 2 |
| –– Mapungubwe Mambas | 2 | 12 December 2017 | 12 December 2017 |
| –– Drakensberg Dragons | 5 | 12 December 2017 | 12 December 2017 |
| –– Drakensberg Dragons | 5 | –– Drakensberg Dragons | 0 |
| 11 December 2017 | 11 December 2017 | | –– Drakensberg Dragons | 0 |
| 11 December 2017 | 11 December 2017 | –– Maropeng Cavemen | 3 |
| –– Maropeng Cavemen | 6 | –– Maropeng Cavemen | 3 |
| –– Addo Elephants | 1 | | |
| –– Addo Elephants | 1 | Third place | Third place |
| | | 12 December 2017 | 12 December 2017 |
| | | –– Mapungubwe Mambas | 2 |
| | | –– Addo Elephants | 1 |

#### Semi-finals

* 11 December 2017 14:00
| Mapungubwe Mambas –– | 2-5 | –– Drakensberg Dragons |
| Hetem 47' Paulo 56' | Report | Smith 21', 39' de Sousa 24' Ntuli 28' Gonzalves 54' |
* 11 December 2017 16:00
| Maropeng Cavemen –– | 6-1 | –– Addo Elephants |
| Comerasamy 13' Louw 27', 43', 54' Seerane 40' Abrahams 55' | Report | Malgraff 56' |

#### Third place game

* 12 December 2017 15:00
| Mapungubwe Mambas –– | 2–1 | –– Addo Elephants |
| Mvimbi 3' Last 9' | Report | Manson 39' |

#### Final

* 12 December 2017 19:30
| Drakensberg Dragons –– | 0-3 | –– Maropeng Cavemen |
| | Report | Cleak 11' da Graca 14' Abrahams 43' |

## Awards

| Player of the tournament | Goalkeeper of the tournament | Top goalscorer | Young Player of the tournament |
| –– Miguel da Graca| –– Gowan Jones | –– Courtney Halle | –– Tyson Dlungwana |

## Final ranking

| Rank | Team |
| | –– Maropeng Cavemen |
| | –– Drakensberg Dragons |
| | –– Mapungubwe Mambas |
| 4 | –– Addo Elephants |
| 5 | –– Garden Route Gazelles |
| 6 | –– Golden Gate Gladiators |

## Goalscorers

There have been 79 goals scored in 19 matches, for an average of 4.16 goals per match.
5 goals
* –– Courtney Halle
4 goals
* –– Connor Beauchamp
3 goals
* –– Gareth Heyns
* –– Austin Smith
* –– Jarryd Jones
* –– Greg Last
* –– Michael Abrahams
* –– Cerezo Comerasamy
* –– Lance Louw
* –– Ricky West
2 goals
* –– Winray Christoffels
* –– Julian Hykes
* –– Damian Kimfley
* –– Ignatius Malgraff
* –– Sinoxolo Mbekeni
* –– Nqobile Ntuli
* –– Mattew de Sousa
* –– Steven Paulo
* –– Brynn Cleak
* –– Chad Futcher
* –– Miguel da Graca
1 goal
* –– Reberto Bosman
* –– Andrew Manson
* –– Nick Gonzalves
* –– Amkelwe Letuka
* –– Dylan Swanepoel
* –– Brandon James
* –– Lloyd Norris-Jones
* –– Jean-Pierre de Voux
* –– Mark Chong
* –– Laython Coombs
* –– Jacki Mohlaba
* –– Maximilian Pike
* –– Rusten Abrahams
* –– Callum Buchanan
* –– Ross Gonzalves
* –– Ross Hetem
* –– Owen Mvimbi
* –– Francois Pretorius
* –– Winchester Scott
* –– Lungani Gabela
* –– Thabang Modise
* –– Clinton Panther
* –– Brad Robertson
* –– Hendy Seerane
Source: SAHA