Australian Jamie Dwyer has officially etched himself into the ranks of hockey’s all-time greats, winning a third world player of the year award in Melbourne on Sunday.
Queenslander Dwyer, 30, added hockey’s highest individual honour for 2009 to his 2004 and 2007 awards.
The honour capped off a remarkable week for Dwyer, after an outstanding performance in the Kookaburras’ 5-3 Champions Trophy final win over Germany at Melbourne’s State Hockey Centre.
And to further boost the celebratory mood in Australian hockey, 20-year-old NSW midfielder Casey Eastham was named women’s world young player of the year.
Eastham starred in the Hockeyroos’ march to the silver medal in this year’s women’s Champions Trophy.
Dwyer, originally from Rockhampton in central Queensland, splits his time between Australia and The Netherlands.
His wife Leoni is Dutch, and he juggles fulltime professional hockey for SC Bloemendaal with his Kookaburras commitments.
Dwyer has pledged he will continue his international career through until at least the 2012 Olympics.
“At the moment I’ve got a great balance in my life between hockey and family, between here and Holland, so I’ll see how my body holds up over the next few years – that’ll be the thing that decides when I retire or not,” Dwyer said.
“At this stage I’m looking to go through to London.”
Dwyer joins Dutch legend Teun de Nooijer as the only players to have won the world men’s player of the year award three times.
“I watched Teun at the World Cup when I was 13 years of age and he’s been in the top five players in the world since then,” Dwyer said.
“So if you put me next to him I’m rapt because I hold him high on a pedestal. Today’s capped off a great week for me personally and for the Australian team.”
Argentina’s Luciana Aymar shared the women’s player of the year award with The Netherlands’ Naomi van As.
It was Aymar’s sixth world player of the year trophy.
England midfielder Ashley Jackson was named men’s young player of the year.
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