The boys moved through the competition undefeated, the only hiccup being a nil-all draw with North-West Sydney in their opening match of the competition in Narellan.

Johnston labelled the draw a wake-up call for the side and said from that point on, the Illawarra team asserted their dominance over their rivals.

"That's back-to-back titles for the under 15s, which is quite exceptional in hockey," Johnston said. "The players were playing at the top of their ability, they were very strong and a couple of younger guys fit in very well.

"We had one little glitch, the first game was a nil-all draw, but we won every game after that. That first game was a bit of a wake-up call, once they got through that and started passing the ball, they played very well."

The Illawarra team rounded out the competition with 2-1 victories over Metro South-West and Newcastle in the semi-final and final, respectively, with Taz Nyrhinen scoring doubles in both matches.

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While the scoreline may have been close, Johnston said that was not reflective of how well Illawarra played in the two matches.

"Taz had an exceptional semi-final and final, he scored two goals in the semi and two goals in the final. We had a lot of good players who were able to feed him the ball in the right spot and he scored the goals.

"It was a great team effort though, it wasn't one individual. Our defence was exceptional as well, Newcastle hardly created any chances and our attack was just too fast for them. The semi-final was the same, they only scored in the last 15 seconds."

Johnston credited the depth of the Illawarra squad for helping the side triumph and that was reflected when Brendan Clinch, Robert Frew and Nyrhinen were selected in the NSW squad. Additionally, Luke Potter was named player of the tournament.

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