Tamworth Hockey Association has tweaked its men's and women's competition set-up in the hope of "building the atmosphere back up".
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The 2024 season officially hits-off on Friday, April 5 and will see some significant changes across both the senior and junior competitions.
Most notably the men and women will adopt what is being referred to as a "switch competition" whereby for a block of rounds the first and second grade women's and first, second and third grade men's games will be all played on the one day.
For the past few years the majority of the men's games have been played of a Saturday and the women's top grades on Sunday.
"We're trying to get a bit more of a social atmosphere back out there and in our hockey community," senior competitions convenor Anne-Maree Gerathy said.
"Everyone's been commenting for a little while that the atmosphere is lacking a bit."
It was that sentiment that prompted the board to task the senior committee to come up with some ideas to try and address that.
After some fairly "robust discussions" it was decided to give the switch concept a try.
"There'll be a block of three weeks where the men in first, second and third grade will play on Sunday, and there'll be a switch of a five-week block where the women will play on the Saturday at the same time as the men," Gerathy explained.
"And that will happen twice throughout the year."
Women's third and fourth grade, the latter which it looks like at this stage they will get up, will remain on Friday night.
For this weekend's first round, it will be business as usual for the first grade men's and women's with the two men's games on Saturday and three women's on Sunday.
The juniors are also switching things up in 2024, moving to even ages as opposed to odd, ie under 10s, 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s rather than 13s, 15s and 18s.
Junior competitions convenor Hanna Klasen said the change is designed to bring them in line with the changes in age structure at a state and national level.
The 10s and 12s, and 14s boys competitions will be played on Saturday mornings, and the 14s girls and 16s and 18s of a Monday night.
There is also minkey for under 6s and 8s.
It all gets underway on Monday April 29 and Saturday May 4.
Klasen is hoping for a good flow-on from the free primary and high school competitions they have been running for the past few weeks.
"We did it last year but this year it's really taken off," she said.
"We've seen solid numbers which is great."
All up she believes it's shaping up to be a good season.
"It'll be jam-packed and it's just great to see numbers increase," she said.
"Because that's what you want, more kids playing sport.
"And the earlier they join the longer they're more likely to stay in the sports as well."
Ahead of the season the THA is running two come-and-try sessions, the first of which is this Saturday (April 6).
Running from 9am they are free and open to adults as well as juniors.
"Come out and try a sport that never gets washed out," Gerathy said.
