Jason Hewitt expecting Hull Pirates to be major force in new NIHL National

The Pirates won a treble last season, including the North One regular season title, and begin the new season with a trip to Milton Keynes Lightning before hosting Swindon Wildcats tomorrow (5.30pm).

"We’re a confident group and I expect us to be up there challenging," said Hewitt, who has kept the majority of his treble-winning squad together, with the most significant change being in the permitted two imports with Slovakian centre Peter Fabus and Latvian winger Olegs Sislannikovs coming on board.

"That’s more us putting pressure on ourselves - but I don't expect any team to be able to take a night off because we're talking about a new division with 10 evenly-matched teams.

"We’re a team that is quite familiar with each other now and what the last two years has done has allow us to create an identity and get comfortable within that. You can sense a little bit of a change in people, in terms of belief.

"So when we are in a sticky spots in games I’ve already seen what I want to see from them, and that is a nice feeling at this stage of the season - we’re a proud group and I really like that about us."

With the UK game's second-tier now returning to a nationwide regular season format, former GB international Hewitt believes this season presents a further opportunity for northern-based teams to prove there is no longer any perceived north-south divide in terms of quality and roster depth.

"People used to have a perception that the south was always stronger than the north, but I I don’t feel the same way," said Hewitt. "With the likes of Sheffield, Telford and ourselves I don’t think you can make that claim anymore.

"Obviously, there are some good players obviously and some good depth down south. I know in the old EPL, the southern-based teams were often a step ahead but I think that has shifted a little bit in the last couple of years."

While many have hailed the creation of the NIHL National division as a welcome return to the 'old EPL' - the previous nationwide incarnation of the second-tier which ended in 2017 - Hewitt doesn't believe it will initially match the quality seen in the final couple of years of that league.

"To be honest, I only played in the EPL for half a year because of a shoulder injury, but the standard of hockey in that league would have surprised a lot of people," added Hewitt.

"The people that I spoke to who had been in it a long time said it had been the best hockey it had ever been and I think that was a product of having five imports and then people being able to recruit top-end British players on top of that, which sometimes left teams with about 10-12 premier players.

"Whereas now, we’ve got the two imports. So the level won’t be like in that last season of the EPL, but what this new league has done is bring back the ‘any night, anyone can win situation’.

"That’s more what the second tier needed, rather than going out and finding five imports. We needed our British players, our go-to players here that are still young, playing in competitive games every night and we haven’t have that over the past two years."

Elsewhere, Sheffield Steeldogs - who opened the new season with a 3-1 home win over newcomers Leeds Chiefs last Sunday - play host again when they face Milton Keynes tomorrow (4.30pm).The Chiefs are on the road once again, paying a visit to player-coach Sam Zajac's former club Telford Tigers tomorrow (6pm).