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

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.

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.To be held in conjunction with the 2011 CHOGM event in Perth, the tournament will be played from October 20-23 at the Perth Hockey Stadium. The tournament sees Australia’s international hockey teams, the Kookaburras and the Hockeyroos, take on some of the world’s best teams including the likes of India, Pakistan, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Fans can expect to experience hockey like they have never seen it before with a new set of rules and format created by Hockey Australia and national coaches Ric Charlesworth and Adam Commens set to demonstrate the best aspects of hockey while also creating much interest around the tournament.

New rules for the International Super Series include:

• Each match consists of two 15 minute halves (instead of 2×35 minute halves) with only 5 minutes break for halftime
• All teams have a maximum of 9 players on the field (instead of 11 players) with 2 players having to stay in the attacking half at all times
• The penalty situations have been simplified to make it more broadcast friendly and easier to understand for new viewers:

1. Penalty corner Four attackers vs two defenders + goalkeeper
2. Penalty stroke 1-on-1 “Face-off” between a player and the  goalkeeper with the player starting at the 23 metre line and having a 1-on-1 challenge against the waiting goalkeeper

• To end a drawn match, use of a “sudden death” system with 1-on-1 face-offs until one team fails to score
• More tolerance of foot & stick contact to reduce unnecessary stoppages in play. If the ball hits the foot outside the circle and it doesn’t influence play – ie non intentional use of foot it will be called play on. Normal foot rules apply as normal in the circle
• Players and coaches interaction to give fans an inner sanctum view of how the  best teams in the world operate
• A goal inside the circle will be worth two goals. A goal outside the circle up to the halfline will be worth one goal. The ball must enter the circle no higher than knee/ backboard height from outside the circle for it to count as a goal

Kookaburras coach Ric Charlesworth said the new rules were sure to create an exciting spectacle for traditional hockey fans while also engaging new fans who like to see fast paced sports at their best.

“Hockey is already obviously a very fast paced sport with lots of excitement and intensity. These rules will increase the pace of the game and result in a more attacking style, which is obviously going to make for great viewing and undoubtedly help us gain a few new fans along the way,” said Charlesworth.

Hockeyroos captain Madonna Blyth said the players were looking forward to trialling the new format.

“It’s great to see Hockey Australia being proactive in trying to engage new fans and show them how great our sport is. The new rules will make the game much faster and I’m really looking forward playing in what will be an exciting tournament,” said Blyth.

With support from the Western Australian government and the Australian Federal government, Hockey Australia Chief Executive Mark Anderson said aligning the newly structured and exciting match format with the CHOGM event presented the sport with an exciting opportunity.

“Hockey Australia is delighted with the fact that hockey has been selected as one of the sports to be involved with CHOGM in October. CHOGM is such an important and prestigious event on the world scale and our association with the event provides us with a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate just how great a sport hockey is. We have two highly regarded international teams in the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos and we know that our participation rates across the country for hockey are very high. We wanted to do something innovative to demonstrate the best aspects of our sport – the excitement, the pace, the goal scoring and we believe this tournament will engage not only hockey fans but also a new audience of people who love sport. We believe we have developed a very strong product that will help hockey’s standing in this country and show just how great our sport is,” said Anderson.

“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.”

“We brought a young team here and they are doing really well. The younger ones are standing up. England is one of the best teams in the world. ”

“By going so well here it helps them believe in themselves and each other. All those things matter. They have to believe in their staff and what they are being told.”

Australia will line up against a New Zealand side coached by Australian Mark Hager in the gold medal match on Wednesday following the Black Sticks 1-0 victory over South Africa.

We wish our girls the best of luck in their efforts to secure gold in Delhi.

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.

Thanks to some brilliant efforts in defence from Nicole Arrold, Australia eventually steadied and began to produce some circle penetrations. However they were unable to generate any legitimate shots on goal thanks to Germany’s solid defence.

Germany continued to push for their opening goal, with Hockeyroos goalkeeper Rachael Lynch called on several times to make some great saves.

Turning defence into attack, the Hockeyroos worked their way on top in the final 10 minutes of the half, controlling the play and beginning to apply some pressure of their own around goal. Their best chance of the half came with Casey Eastham crossed the ball from the baseline, however no one was there to receive it and Germany were given a let off.

Despite controlling the final minutes the Hockeyroos were unable to produce a goal, with the scores remained tied as the teams entered half time. 

Germany started the second half in the same fashion as they did the first, putting the Australian defence under pressure as they searched for the first goal of the game.

When Kate Hollywood was sent from the field for two minutes after receiving a green card Germany took full advantage, drawing a penalty corner which was converted by Tina Bachmann to give them the crucial lead.

With plenty of time still left on the clock the Hockeyroos gave it their all in search of the two goals they would need to qualify them for the semi finals. Despite their brave efforts and generating two penalty corners in the last 15 minutes, they were unable to do so and will miss the opportunity to play Argentina in the semi finals on Thursday.

Hockeyroos coach Frank Murray said that while he is obviously disappointed with the way his team played today, the Hockeyroos must now turn their attention to improving for the 2012 London Olympics.

“Obviously we are disappointed; not only in the result but in the way we played. In our view we didn’t play to our potential today, we turned the ball over far too easily in the middle of the field and we have a fair bit of work between now and London, so we look forward to that. Obviously we have the game against Korea to get over first, and then we have the Commonwealth Games but it’s now about finding a group for London and making sure we have the players with the ability and the physical capacity to play these types of games at this type of tournament,” said Murray.

Hockeyroos captain Madonna Blyth said Australia’s inability to score was the most disappointing factor from the match.

“We are obviously very disappointed that we couldn’t score, we did make a few chances but I think that our awareness in the circle both in attack in defence let us down. We created a few more opportunities in the second half and a few more corners but we didn’t have too many shots that really worried them. That is something that we have really worked on so to not do it tonight in such a big match was disappointing,” said Blyth.

Victorian

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.

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.

By Travis Brooks

Too often I see kids touted as the next big thing for their sport. Comments like: “This kid is so good”, “They’re going to play for Australia”, “they’re in a class of their own”, and so the list goes on, are common claims made by people.

I remember as I was growing up playing against kids who I had only heard rumours about. Some of the kids lived up to those rumours, others were just that, a rumour. I find it difficult to understand how someone can say that at around 13 years of age, this kid is going to be the next big thing.

My experience tells me that there are quite a few factors to take into consideration when making such claims. For instance, at 13 years of age, quite obviously kids bodies are going through a fair bit of change and what you find is that some kids bodies begin to develop before others. Some kids grow, some add strength and power, some put on weight or ‘fill out’ where others have a growth spurt and begin to look ‘gangly’ in their movements. What I have noticed is that it is during these years its the kids that bodies develop the fastest are the ones that begin to see an improved performance as a result of the changes that their bodies have gone through.At 13 I made my first state team and can remember having some interesting discussions at training. One of the boys in the team had a full chest of hair and was already shaving, something that I didn’t have to worry about for at least another couple of years!This kid was a ‘man-child,’ and if not our best player, then at least in the top 3. He was much taller and stronger than any of the other kids in the team. Now that I look back on my career since retiring, its people like these kids that I wonder what ever happened to them? This kid I talk of was touted as the next ‘big thing’, but by 18 years of age he was no where to be seen….

Then there’s the late bloomer, the kid that gets to 21 years of age then comes out of nowhere to be a world beater. A bloke who is the perfect example of this is Stephen Mowlam, the goalkeeper of 2004 Olympic Games, and a member of the 2006 FIH World 11.  The ‘Gimp’ was a freak in the net with amazing reflexes that produced save after save and saw him as a constant pest to international forwards. Stephen made his first state team at 21 years of age, a rare occurence in the field of hockey, but went on to play at the highest level and reap the greatest rewards possible, Olympic Gold. He shows that if someone has their mind on achieving something and the drive to achieve it, anything is possible.

Not only is there physical aspects to a childs development that need to be taken into account as to whether or not they will become the next big thing, but there’s also social and mental issues that will see some people fall short of realising their potential.

As a player reaches their later teen years, the social scene presents many issues a player will need to navigate in order to become the best they can be. From alcohol, recreational drugs and parties to peer pressure, I have seen all these issues result in what I call a ‘waste of talent’ occuring. The major factor in a player touted as the next big thing, actually becoming the next big thing, is in fact the player themselves and their attitude and drive to want to get there.

Many kids who have been identified to have talent at a young age and destined to make it to the elite levels, lose a perspective of where their performances are really at. Whilst the kid may be a world beater at the level they are playing at, they develop habits that are destructive in their development in the sport. For example a kid who is the best in their team who regularly runs from one end of the field to the other with the ball executing fantastic dribbling skills, misses out on developing other key areas of their game such as awareness for other players around them and the ability to execute the numerous types of passes. Whilst the kid may dominate their age group for a number of years, as they get older and the kids around them get smarter, they are going to need a much more rounded game than the one that they are currently executing and if this hasn’t been developed as throughout their career, they will find that playing field is eventually levelled!

So what’s the trick to helping kids realise their potential in a sport he/she is playing? Well I’d follow these simple steps:

1. Enjoyment- make sure whatever they are doing they enjoy it. If a kid isn’t enjoying what they like, then when push comes to shove and they require extra work to get to where they want to get to, because of the enjoyment factor they will be more inclined to knuckle down and get stuck into it.

2. Rounded Development- ensure that a kid constantly works on their ‘weaknesses’ in their game. If they have great ball skills but poor vision, at training put them in situations where they can develop these abilities and once this takes place, challenge them to put it into practice during a game.

3. Keep it Real- if a kid is touted as the next big thing and is dominating at their age group, compare them to the next age group and beyond to see where they are really at. This will ensure that they are always progressing their development and heading in the right direction. Its easy for a kid to believe the hype that they are actually good and loose perspective of where they are at and actually how much work there is to do to get to where they are ‘categorised’ as going! If they aren’t world beaters at 15 years of age, don’t panic, as long as they are developing their whole game (as described above) they put themselves in a great position that when their body fully develops and their mind matures, they will have every chance to reach their potential.

In finishing I’m not against kids being touted as the next big thing, inevitably many of the kids describe as this go on to achieve at this level. To me its more about keeping things in perspective as too often I see kids make the wrong decision for their development because they believe their own hype. I also don’t like it when a I see a kid that has everything going for them lose hope of achieving their potential or ‘dream’ just because their body hasn’t yet gone through their its development phase. Remember we are all unique characters and there’s no one set path that one has to follow in reaching their potential.

This article was written by Olympic Gold medalist Travis Brooks and is reproduced with his permission from his website Brooks 24.

To those of you out there who have an opinion about something that is happening in hockey and want the opportunity to voice it – your time has come.

In case you haven’t noticed the crew that created The Hockey Show have been very busy with a lot of things that aren’t to do with The Hockey Show, which has meant we haven’t been posting many articles of late. Unfortunately it looks like this trend is set to continue – so instead of doing nothing, we thought we’d ask you to do the work for us.

We are looking for interesting articles exploring current issues in the hockey community – if you are interested please submit your article to us by email.

With your help we are hoping we can reinvigorate community discussion of the hockey issues that are dear to your heart.