Ehren Hazell and Darby Chalmers' NSW under-21s State side were unable to defend their Australian Indoor Hockey Championship title at Wollongong, with the home side suffering a heartbreaking one-goal defeat in Sunday's final.
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With scores locked at 4-4, Western Australia's Ryan Pace scored his third goal in the 39th minute to clinch a 5-4 victory.
It was a bit of a silver finish for the northern contingent with the NSW Blues women's side featuring Tamworth's Emily Chaffey, New England's Chelsea Thornton and former New England player Brianna Sutton beaten by their NSW State counterparts 7-2 in the gold medal game.
The Blues stuck with them in the first quarter with scores level at 1-all going into the break but the top side skipped away with three goals in the second quarter and were always in control from there.
Earlier, as he did in last year's final as NSW defeated Queensland 4-2, Tamworth star Hazell netted a double.
He opened the scoring in the 13th minute before putting NSW ahead again in the fourth quarter with his fifth penalty corner, and 10th goal of the tournament.
It put him third in the overall goal scoring standings and gave him 20 across the under-21s and opens championships.
Chaffey was also backing up from the open's championships after being recruited to play for South Australia.
She was the Blues' equal-top goalscorer with five, highlighted by a hat-trick against ACT.
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Named originally in the Blues side, Chalmers earned a call-up to the top side.
The New England product acquitted himself well and along with his silver medal finished with four goals.
New England team-mate Cody McCann meanwhile suited up for the Blues.
They finished fifth after edging out ACT 3-2 in their fifth/sixth classification.
