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Commonwealth Games Preview: Hockey (Men)

Expert
24th July, 2014
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Australia’s reigning World Champion Men’s Hockey team, the Kookaburras, head into the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow later this month facing one their biggest challenges in recent memory. Largely, it’s all of their own doing.

Still riding high after their recent World Cup win in The Hague, the Netherlands, in June this year, the Kookaburras head to Glasgow the dominant men’s side since Hockey was first introduced to the Commonwealth Games schedule for the Kuala Lumpur Games in 1998.

The Kookaburras took Gold in that first Commonwealth Games outing, beating host country Malaysia in the final, and have repeated the feat in every Games since, taking Gold in Manchester in 2002, Melbourne in 2006, and most recently in New Delhi in 2010, where they again beat the host nation to take the title.

A top-four ranked national side for the last 30 years, the Kookaburras are also considered the most consistent performer of the Olympic team sports, having finished in the top four in every Olympic Games between 1980 and 2008.

But despite this history of being the best, and certainly in Commonwealth Games competition, Hockey Australia and Kookaburras coach Ric Charlesworth made the interesting decision to introduce new blood into the World Champions.

What’s the pre-tournament buzz?
The Kookaburras have named a 16-man squad featuring nine Commonwealth Games debutants, and 12 players who were part or the World Cup triumph.

The move toward new and younger players might not have registered much of a stir; save for the fact one of the omitted players was five-time world hockey Player of the Year, Jamie Dwyer.

35-year-old Dwyer, the Kookaburras’ most experienced player with 321 caps to his name, remains one of the best strikers in the game, and scored a goal in the side’s 6-1 hammering of the Netherlands in the World Cup final last month, the biggest ever win in a World Cup decider.

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While all careers eventually come to an end, the decision to leave Dwyer out of the squad for Glasgow still seems a strange move, given he is still clearly playing well. With Glasgow so closely following the World Cup, such a move toward youth might have made more logical sense after the Commonwealth Games, not before.

Replacing Dwyer’s 200-plus international goals will certainly take some doing, too.

If there were anyone who could make such challenging transition work, it would be renowned mentor Charlesworth, who went through a similarly challenging period while in charge of the women’s side, the Hockeyroos, after so many years of success in the early 2000s.

Except that Charlesworth isn’t going to Glasgow either.

Charlesworth was always going to step down from the Kookaburras post after the Commonwealth Games, but he stunned Australian sport by announcing only a week after the World Cup win that he would call time on his glittering career early.

“[The] World Cup final is the best full stop I could wish for in my coaching career,” Charlesworth said, in announcing his move.

“I believe it would be indulgent for me to go to the Commonwealth Games.”

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Charlesworth revealed that he had actually made the decision to end his tenure before the World Cup had started, and that he would have stepped down regardless of the result. In a classy move, Charlesworth said nothing of his plans following the win in the final, so as not to ruin the moment and the recognition for the players themselves.

“I have thought about it a lot. The high point of my year was the World Cup. The team will be moving on and it’s my personal decision – I don’t want to be packing up and away for another three weeks,” Charlesworth said.

Charlesworth will work with the Kookaburras in their preparations right up until their departure for the Glasgow, while Hockey Australia have announced current assistant coaches Graham Reid and Paul Gaudoin have been appointed joint Head Coaches for Games. Assistant coach Ben Bishop will remain in his current position and a decision on Charlesworth’s permanent successor won’t be made until after Glasgow.

Who to look out for?
Kookaburras skipper, Mark Knowles, leads a men’s team that contains 12 of the World Cup winning side that triumphed in The Hague recently with Australian junior captain Daniel Beale from Queensland, Western Australian Trent Mitton, Victorian Andrew Philpott and New South Wales’ Tristan White the four new faces.

Knowles competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the 2010 tournament in New Delhi while Chris Ciriello, Fergus Kavanagh, Trent Mitton, Eddie Ockenden, Simon Orchard and Matthew Swann were also part of the side that beat India 8-0 in the 2010 final.

21-year-old Northern Territory youngster Jeremy Hayward has also been selected having made his senior international debut in March, and after being named Young Player of the Tournament at the World Cup. Beale, Andrew Charter, Matthew Gohdes, Kieran Govers, Philpott, Jake Whetton, White and Aran Zalewski will all compete in their first Commonwealth Games.

Who’s their competition?
The Kookaburras will start favourites to take Gold in the ten-team Men’s Hockey competition, and will face their main challenge from India in Pool A, and from England and Malaysia in Pool B. The top two teams from each pool will progress to the Semi-Finals.

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The competition will take place between Thursday 24 July and Sunday 3 August at the purpose built National Hockey Centre on the host city’s famous Glasgow Green.

Pool A: Australia, India, host nation Scotland, South Africa, and Wales.
Pool B: Canada, England, Malaysia, New Zealand, Trinidad & Tobago.

Kookaburras Commonwealth Games squad: Daniel Beale (Qld), Andrew Charter (GK – ACT), Chris Ciriello (Vic), Matt Gohdes (Qld), Kieran Govers (NSW), Jeremy Hayward (NT), Fergus Kavanagh (WA), Mark Knowles (Qld), Trent Mitton (WA), Eddie Ockenden (Tas), Simon Orchard (NSW), Andrew Philpott (Vic), Matthew Swann (Qld), Jake Whetton (Qld), Tristan White (NSW), Aran Zalewski (WA).

What to Drink while watching
A hockey game demands a cold beverage, beer, cider or ginger ale will all work, good company, and banter. Then sit back and soak it in.

This article was first published on the Tenplay website here.

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