Definition
- The FIH World League is a new competition that will start in 2012 and be played every two years.
- Starting with the FIH World Cup 2014, the World League will be used to decide which teams will qualify alongside the Continental Champions and Hosts (subject to IOC approval for the Olympic Games) for future Olympic Games and FIH World Cups

Competition
- FIH will invite members to enter and offer to host Rounds 1 and 2 in April in odd years
- The competition will be played over 4 rounds
- Round 1 will be local – not necessarily within a country’s own continent
- The number of Round 1 tournaments will depend on the number and location of entries.
- Formats for Round 1 tournaments will probably be different in different continents.
- Round 2 will be regional – generally more than one continent.
- There will be 4 Round 2 tournaments, with 6 teams in each. The format will be a single pool with classification matches.
- Round 3 – the semi-finals; will be global.
- There will be 2 Round 3 tournaments with of 8 teams divided into 2 pools of 4 with classification matches
- Round 4 – the finals
- One tournament of 8 teams divided into 2 pools of 4 with full classification matches
- At the time of seeking entries, teams ranked 1 – 8 in the FIH World ranking will be given a bye to round 3; teams ranked 9 – 16 will be given a bye to round 2.

Principles
- The competition is open to all members of FIH.
- To encourage entries, FIH will seek to ensure that costs to hosts and participants are kept as low as possible in Round 1.

Qualification for Olympic Games and FIH World Cup
- From 2014 Olympic Games and FIH World Cup qualification will be –
- The Host (subject to IOC agreement for Olympic Games)
- The 5 Continental Champions
- 6 / 7 from FIH World League (depending on Host also being Continental Champion)

Dates
- FIH will seek to try and ensure tournaments, particularly Rounds 3 and 4, are played within FIH windows (December – February and June – August). However, there will be times when this is not practicable.
- From 2013/14, generally
- Round 1 will be played in December /February and June/July
- Round 2 will be played between August/September and in December/January
- Round 3 will be played in February and/or June
- Continental Championships will be played after Round 3
- Round 4 will be played from September onwards

World Ranking Points
- All teams playing in FIH World League will gain World Ranking Points
- Because FIH World League will replace the qualifying tournaments for Olympic Games and FIH World Cup, there will be an adjustment to the number of World Ranking Points to be gained from those events from 2014.

From Hockey Australia CEO Mark Anderson…

Dear Hockey Fan,

With the Oceania Olympic Qualifier just completed and the 2012 London  Olympics now less than a year away, I’m sure you are as excited as we are about what is in store for our two national teams, the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos, in the coming months.

The next opportunity to see our teams in action is just a few days away. For those of you who are not aware Hockey Australia has created a unique tournament unlike any other hockey event in the world – the Lanco International Super Series, (LISS). The tournament will be held in Perth from October 20-23 in conjunction with Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) thanks to the support of the Federal and State Governments and Australian Sports Commission we will see both the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos take on the likes of India, Pakistan, Malaysia and New Zealand.

New rules and formats have been created for the tournament to engage interest from both hockey fans and non hockey fans. Our National Programs and in particular Head Coaches, Ric Charlesworth and Adam Commens have also had input to the creation of these rules. These include teams having 9 players a side, games will be played in 15 minute halves as opposed to 35 minute halves, bigger goals, one player from each team will be required to stay in the forward half to create more space and rules around the ground will be relaxed to encourage continuous play.

We understand there may be some traditionalists who are not fans of the rule changes. Rest assured, we are not trying to change our great game. It is about providing another option which will appeal to television and sponsors to increase the exposure of our sport in what is an extremely competitive sporting market. Australia has always been an innovator in our sport and this is just another example.

Over the past months we have already achieved some fantastic results for the LISS, firstly signing Indian engineering and construction company Lanco Infratech Limited as naming rights sponsor for the tournament.

With Lanco aiming to build a presence in the WA market, we think we can give them great value for money and have no doubt that the sponsorship of the tournament will increase their profile both here in Australia and also in India. Hero Motocorp has also come on board as an Associate Sponsor and we will announce an Australian hockey partner at the event.

More recently, we were extremely excited to announce that ABC will be broadcasting the tournament LIVE.

The importance of this cannot be understated. It will be the first time in a significant period that hockey will be shown live on free to air television outside of the Olympics or Commonwealth Games.

The first two days of the tournament will be shown in the form of delayed highlights, but the final two days on Saturday and Sunday will be shown completely live. In further exciting news, all games will be shown in full delayed on Fox Sports, who continue to show great support of hockey. We thank them for this continued coverage. You may be interested to know that the event will also be broadcast into India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka and many other countries around the world.

As I’m sure you will agree this is a fantastic result for our sport. The lack of hockey on free to air TV always seems to be one of the biggest issue raised amongst fans.  With the ABC showing the Lanco International Super Series we are now asking all fans to make the most of it. The opportunity is now there to show the broadcasters that there is great value in our sport and that hockey and sports fans will support our two great teams.

The reasons as to why there isn’t more hockey on free to air TV are varied but there are two major reasons – cost and interest. Broadcasting just one game of hockey is extremely expensive. Unfortunately it is an expense that we cannot afford without television network support. In previous discussions networks have indicated they are unsure of potential ratings for hockey tournaments outside of the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

And that is where we need your help. I can’t understate how important it is in our bid to gain more free to air coverage of our sport that the Lanco International Super Series rates well on the ABC.

We therefore need EACH and EVERY hockey fan around the country to tune and watch the action. If the LISS rates well – as we know it will with your support – our chances of gaining more free to air coverage in the future will significantly increase.

And on the other hand if it doesn’t rate well, our position and chances of getting more coverage in the future will be significantly reduced.

So for all of you out there who have justifiably wondered why we don’t have hockey on free to air TV, this is your chance to ensure that changes.

A full fixture of ABC’s and Fox Sports schedule of the event can be found here.

ABC Broadcast Schedule (All times are AEDT):

Thursday 20th October: 23:00 – 00:30 – Day 1 action (Highlights)
Australia v Malaysia (women) & Australia v Pakistan (men)

Friday 21st October: 23.10 – 00.10 – Day 2 action (Highlights)
Australia v India (women) & Australia v New Zealand (men)

Saturday 22nd October: 17:00 – 18:30 – Day 3 action (LIVE)
Australia v India (women) & Australia v India (men)

Sunday 23rd October: 17:00 – 19:00 – Day 4 action (LIVE)
Play-off 3 v 4 (men), Women’s Final & Men’s Final.

Fox Sports schedule (All times are AEDT):

Friday 21st October: 3pm on Fox Sports 1 (day 1 matches)

Saturday 22nd October: 5.30am on Fox Sports 1 (day 2 matches)

Monday 24th October: 7am on Fox Sports 2 (day 3 matches)

Tuesday 25th October: 3pm on Fox Sports 3 (finals)

Wednesday 26th October: 9am on Fox Sports 2 (finals)

We now have an opportunity to show the broadcasters exactly how much passion and demand for hockey there is in Australia. We look forward to your support of both our valued broadcast partners.

Kind regards

Mark Anderson
Chief Executive

Hey Guys,

It’s been a fair while since anything of merit has been posted here on The Hockey Show website, and it feels appropriate that after a bit of a hiatus we are posting something with such an enormous amount of merit for everyone to watch.

Gus Johnston is one of us. For those who don’t know him, he’s one of the guys that worked tirelessly for numerous years producing The Hockey Show each and every week for the Victorian Hockey community… and it’s under this notion of community that Gus has decided to publicly address what is a major issue in our sport, in the most incredible brave and candid way he possibly can.

After many years of competing in hockey at an elite level, he has decidedg to share his experience with homophobia in sport. It’s taken him many years to find the strength to share it, but he hopes that people find value in hearing it. For Gus, as you’ll see in the video it’s also also about leadership. We all underestimate just how much of an impact, both positive and negative that we can have on one another’s lives (and in sport especially) – and Gus saw an opportunity to turn something that has been very difficult and in ways negative in his life, into something infinitely more positive.

The Hockey Show implores you, your teammates, your club, your opposition, your kids, your parents, your grandparents and indeed the wider community to watch this piece.

It’s both incredibly powerful, and incredibly relevant and the little gang at The Hockey Show are amazingly proud of Gus for doing what he has decided to do, and love him to bits.

Ok. Here it is:

Ballza.

P.S – there is also a note from CEO Ben Hartung on Hockey Victoria’s website – check it out.

The long awaited competition review was released today.

For full details check the Hockey Victoria website by clicking here.

Hockey Australia introduces a new & exciting hockey format – the International Super Series!

Fast. Exciting. Lots of goals! These will be the words that come to mind when sports fans attend the newly created International Super Series!

Unlike any other hockey tournament in the world, Hockey Australia has created an innovative hockey tournament with all new and exciting rules to make the game ever faster, more exciting and broadcast friendly. Read More

Following on from a tense 1-0 victory against an England side that failed to convert their superior amount of possession into goals, retiring Australian coach Frank Murray said he was glad he was retiring after the games.

“My heart could not stand another match like that,” he said. “It is the right time to go. The side needs a new voice and it needs a new voice on the way to London otherwise it be a slog all the way.” Read More

Courtesy Hockey Australia

Germany 1 Hockeyroos 0

Goals – Ger Bachmann 43m PC

Australia’s World Cup dreams have come to an end after losing to Germany 1-0 today in Argentina.

The Hockeyroos needed to win today to finish second in their pool and qualify for the semi finals. They will now play Korea for fifth place on Friday.

Things began disastrously for the Hockeyroos when Germany found the back of the net after only two minutes. However after Australia used their video referral the goal was disallowed, ensuring the scores remained nil all.

Despite only needing a draw to progress to the semi finals, Germany started the more aggressive team, seemingly looking for an early goal to mount the pressure on Australia. Read More

Get onto the HV website this and fill out the survey for the betterment of Hockey in Victoria (and to maybe win a $300 stick!):

Click Here

The competition review will potentially have massive implications, and the info used in the responses will help HV make decisions about the future structure of the entire competition.  This will have ramifications for every player involved in Victorian hockey – so its in everyone’s interest to participate.

Let’s make sure that HV get as many responses as possible from a broad a range of people so the data they get takes into account everyone’s opinion.

THS noticed this on Hockey Victoria’s site and thought it worth a reprint.

Maximum Kudos to the boys. Less so for the milestone, than their unwavering loyalty. Every club needs players like this.

Keep dribblin’

From: Hockey Victoria 22.07.10

This weekend, two stalwarts of the Hawthorn Hockey Club play in milestone matches of the highest order. Sean Jenner – 200 State League 1 (SL1) matches and Charlie Tulloch – 150.

Jenner and Tulloch’s combined 350 games in SL1 do not capture the games played in Hawthorn’s top team in the mid to late ’90s when they started playing State League 3 (SL3) and State League 2 (SL2) hockey.

In the mid to late ’90s, the pair worked together for five years to lead the Hawks from SL3 to SL1, picking up two premierships (SL3 and SL2) along the way.

Since 2000, these lads have gone on to play a further 350 games (combined) in SL1, and were a massive part of the club’s recent success.

They played a big part in bringing Hawthorn to the top of the Victorian club ladder and cemented Hawthorn’s place in the top 3 on the SL1 every year between 2003 and 2008, the year in which Hawthorn won the SL1 Premiership.

Sean has played in 15 SL1 finals with the Hawks and Charlie has played in 13. Charlie also won the club best and fairest award in 1998 and 1999.

These two have been a long-time feature of our top side, playing positive and exciting hockey.