The other is still working on finding its best form.
And those teams are not who you might expect.
The Otago women have traditionally struggled on the national stage.
But they picked up their first point in the National Hockey Championship when drawing with Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday. That game was eventually lost in the shootout, but Otago carry a point through to the bottom-four round.
They are still winless after three games, but coach Hymie Gill is pretty happy with his side’s progress.
‘‘We’ve gone not too bad, actually,’’ he said.
‘‘We lost the first one 6-0 but we played a reasonably good Auckland side and we competed with them pretty well in the first two quarters.
‘‘We could have closed up shop and only lost 3-0. But I’m trying to get the girls to attack and be adventurous.’’
The 2-1 loss to Manawatu ‘‘could have gone either way’’and was another decent showing by Otago.
‘‘This is a team that we’ve had together for a couple of years so we’re starting to have some continuity in our selections and our play and stuff and that’s starting to show out.
‘‘We were unfortunate not to win [against Hawke’s Bay] but we got a point. That’s our first point in a long, long time.
‘‘In the last three years we haven’t had a win or a draw so we’re kind of excited by that.’’
Otago will play Waikato today and Wellington tomorrow, and they are targeting both games for a win.
So much of Otago’s attack centres around Tessa Jopp and Kelsey Smith, but Annabelle Schneidemann has been ‘‘causing some problems with her individual one-on-one skills’’, while defensive midfielder Millie White has been ‘‘putting out fires’’.
Otago men’s player-coach Blair Tarrant had a different view about his team’s progress. They won their opening two games but were beaten in a shootout by Waikato on Tuesday.
They are safely through to the top four, however, and wins over Canterbury today and North Harbour tomorrow will secure them a spot in the final and the opportunity to defend their title.
The back-to-back champions had a lot of new players this season and were yet to discover their rhythm, Tarrant said.
‘‘It’s great to get through to top four, obviously,’’ he said.
‘‘But I feel like we haven’t quite reached our best yet, which is good. It means that we can improve for the next couple of games and hopefully go well.’’
They will need to be at their best for the Canterbury game.
They drilled Auckland 5-1 and thumped Manawatu 11-0 before edging North Harbour in a shootout after the game was level 1-1 at fulltime.
‘‘They’re a good side.
‘‘We just need to put them under pressure. I think that’s one of our strengths is having the ability to put the other team under pressure and we need to do that right from the start.’’
‘‘I think everyone up here watching probably thinks that Canterbury and Harbour are the favourites. That’s actually where we enjoy being, so we’re willing to go in there and try to upset some teams.
Defender Jordan Ward has had a solid campaign for Otago and is one of the players the defending champions will lean on for inspiration.
Zeke Buschl has been picking off a lot of passes and creating opportunities for Otago on the counterattack, and striker Oliver Battrick has been tidy up front and won a couple of penalty corners for the team.
