{"id":3506,"date":"2016-09-27T18:46:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T16:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=3506"},"modified":"2016-09-27T18:46:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T16:46:43","slug":"nmmus-malgraff-tops-phl-scoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/nmmus-malgraff-tops-phl-scoring\/","title":{"rendered":"NMMU’s Malgraff tops PHL scoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

NMMU-Madibaz hockey star Ignatius Malgraff emerged as the leading goal-scorer after the inaugural Premier Hockey League (PHL) drew to a close in Johannesburg on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Thirteen Madibaz players – 10 men and three women – were chosen for the PHL, which saw five men’s and women’s teams playing in a month-long competition.<\/p>\n

Malgraff’s seven goals saw him top the list ahead of Lloyd Norris-Jones and Ricky West, who notched five each.<\/p>\n

The human movement sciences student said being the top scorer was not necessarily his aim.<\/p>\n

“Honestly speaking, all I did was take my chances in front of the goals and, in the end, I was the top goal-scorer,” said Malgraff.<\/p>\n

“I’m happy that I got this award but I couldn’t have achieved it without the help of my team-mates.”<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old striker, who made his debut for the national team two seasons ago, turned out for the Addo Elephants alongside fellow NMMU students Devon Clarke, Chad Durrheim and Joshua August.<\/p>\n

They qualified for the final where they lost 2-0 to the Maropeng Cavemen, who had Madibaz player Dillan Langeveld (as well as Michael Abrahams of PE’s Lakeside Cavaliers) in their ranks.<\/p>\n

Madibaz star Lauren Nina was included in the Blyde River Bunters side, who beat Madikwe Rangers 3-1 in the women’s final.<\/p>\n

The Madibaz premier league mentor Cheslyn Gie, who coached the Addo Elephants, felt the PHL was a “huge step in the right direction for SA hockey”.<\/p>\n

\"NMMU-Madibaz<\/a>
NMMU-Madibaz star Ignatius Malgraff was the top goal-scorer in the inaugural Premier Hockey League which ended in Johannesburg at the weekend. Photo: Supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“The concept gave players from smaller regions the opportunity to compete at the highest domestic level possible.<\/p>\n

“It also gave them the opportunity to be coached by various coaches with different ideas of how the game should be played.”<\/p>\n

Malgraff was excited about the concept, saying the PHL was just what domestic hockey needed.<\/p>\n

“It was the perfect platform to showcase the talent the country has to offer.”<\/p>\n

He said they now had something to play for and, with a players’ draft system in place, they could be spotted at any level.<\/p>\n

While the PHL essentially consisted of franchise squads, each team was allocated four marquee players who turned out for the region in which they were born.<\/p>\n

The Madibaz players were:<\/p>\n

Men: Chad Durrheim, Muzimmal Sheik, Grant Kapp, Devon Clarke, Dillan Langeveld, Joshua August, Chad Cairncross, Kirwin Christoffels, Ignatius Malgraff, Cerezo Comeresamy; Women: Kiona Sequeira, Lauren Nina, Zimasa Dunywa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NMMU-Madibaz hockey star Ignatius Malgraff emerged as the leading goal-scorer after the inaugural Premier Hockey League (PHL) drew to a close in Johannesburg on Sunday. Thirteen Madibaz players – 10 men and three women – were chosen for the PHL, which saw five men’s and women’s teams playing in a month-long competition. Malgraff’s seven goals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1768,1970,1937,2019,2018,30,1770,1969],"class_list":["post-3506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-hockey","tag-hockey-league","tag-hockey-news","tag-ignatius-malgraff","tag-madibaz-hockey","tag-news","tag-nmmu","tag-premier-hockey-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}