Both NZ Futures hockey teams suffered defeat yesterday, which only confirms the men's position at the bottom of their pool while the women are still in the mix for some semi-finals hockey.

The lads were touched up by Victoria, with Australian international Chris Cirello sealing his spot as the leading goal-scorer, nailing two brutal drag-flicks. Victoria fought off a good start from the kiwis, which saw NZ score the first goal and then tie things up at 2-2 but Victoria then ran away with the game, winning 8-2.

Jared Jones and Oliver MacIntyre scored the goals for the kiwis, giving Jones his second goal for the tournament and along with Benedict van Woerkom they are the leading goal-scorers for NZ (Cirello has 5 goals).

The ladies went down to Queensland 5-0, which put QLD at the top of the pool on goal-difference. The NZ Futures women are nicely poised for a late charge at the semi-finals though as they face Tasmania this evening and Tassie are currently without a win from their four games.

NZ are 4th in their pool (Tassie are 5th), however the kiwi girls are only 3 points behind QLD with QLD, Canberra and Western Australia tied on 9 points while NZ are on 6 points. QLD face Canberra today and WA are up against New South Wales in a crossover game, so if results fall the way of the kiwis they could find themselves in 2nd.

Working against them is their goal-difference which is at -4, so they'll need Canberra and WA to suffer heavy defeats, as well as putting a whole bunch of goals past Tassie to qualify.

Catherine Tinning leads the kiwi goal-scorers with 2 goals while Mariah Williams (NSW) and Laura Gray (Canberra) are tied on 4th as top goal-scorers.