A near capacity crowd, a thrilling contest, fans drinking cold beer while cheering their team to victory.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m talking about Collingwood taking on their traditional rivals Essendon at the MCG on Sunday afternoon, or the crucial NRL fixture between the Melbourne Storm and Parramatta Eels on Monday night.
But this is hockey.
The Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) has progressed in leaps and bounds since its inception in 2000, to become the strongest league in the southern hemisphere.
With the IHC Mustangs becoming the league’s eighth team at the beginning of the 2011 season, expansion again looks likely with the Perth Thunder slated to enter the competition in 2012.
Furthermore, the next AIHL champion is set to face off against the winner of the NZIHL in the quest for trans-Tasman hockey supremacy.
There have also been discussions between members of the two leagues with regards to a potential merger in the future.
So if the AIHL is so fantastic why haven’t you heard of it? AIHL clubs are run on shoestring budgets and as a result players are only semi-professional, which means that the clubs assist players with playing costs on top of living expenses and finding employment.
Players also have individual sponsors who help ease the financial burden of playing the game for the love of it. As a result, there are no big television deals like we are seeing with the NRL and AFL and the league gets very little mainstream coverage.
Instead clubs rely on streaming audio and video of their home fixtures through their websites.
In what might be the biggest leap forward they are close to signing an apparel deal with Majestic (Major League Baseball and Australian Baseball League suppliers), which would ensure that a wider range of gear would be available for supporters.
Because of where the league sits in Australia’s already congested sporting landscape, the AIHL is unlikely ever to be shown on screens around the country, what they can offer though is the intimate fan experience that very few other leagues in Australia can.
The Icehouse in Melbourne, which has a capacity of 1000, is big enough to offer fans the comfort they would feel at any major venue while they are still close enough to hear every bone crunching hit.
Another great AIHL tradition is that post game players will mingle with fans, which enables fans, young and old alike easy access to Australia’s unrecognised sporting heroes.
So what does the AIHL need to expand its niche market?
I spoke with Melbourne Ice import Jason Baclig after his side’s shootout victory over the Gold Coast on Saturday night to find out.
“The professionalism of the league is second to none and we are treated very well… I never thought that there would be world class hockey when I started to play at this league. All of the imports here are working very hard to raise the profile of the league,” he said.
Baclig was also quick to praise the efforts of those giving up their time to make the AIHL a success.
“The league is taking real bounds with Daniel Eade and Tyler Lovering in public relations. People are telling me they are hearing us on the radio all the time as well as on facebook and twitter. With the professionalism in this league it is going to skyrocket.”
Another advantage to the AIHL is that it is more child friendly than most other sports leagues in Australia, as the smaller stadia often mean that the children are able to run around without going out of sight of their parents should their interest wane.
Additionally, if children (and in some cases adults) who attend games are bitten by the Hockey bug then this will lead to increased playing numbers, which are already on the rise in Victoria and New South Wales.
So next time you are sitting at home wishing there was live sport you could go and see, think outside the box and try something different, you never know what you might find.
So how can you get involved with your local team? Start by following the league on Facebook and Twitter as well as visiting the official site.
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
This is kinda what I was saying... it is really quite strange, both the rugby codes are lacking in "the biff" department these days, and the AFL has done an excelent (in terms of practicality) job in removing the punch-on from the game, but has reduced aggression to something of a year 7 shove-fest. Nobody seems to want it (the biff) to be a part of thier games, yet, in the terraces, there is a misty-eyed longing for the the "golden days". the cult status of reg regan and the "bring back the biff" t-shirt highlighted this.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Bah humbug, as the old man said.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
I'm not interested in ice hockey, but if I were inclined to become so, the pointless fighting would prevent it.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
I've been meaning to go see Perth Heat play this season, haven't been to see them for what must be a decade. Very impresed with what I've seen of the new boutique diamond they've built. I hope they manage to keep the league going this time; more codes is the spice of life. As for the AIHL I was very (but pleasantly) surprised to hear the new Perth team were setting up in Cockburn, which I didn't even realise had a rink...
mitzter
Guest
It's been enjoyable in canberra the last couple of years. Really small 'stadium' that sperately needs an upgrade, but why do the refs keep breaking up the fights?!?
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
One thing I did enjoy when I went to the ABL, was that small, sub-1000 crowd, reasonably priced beer and bloody nice food (again, reasonably priced), you're within touching distance of the players and everywhere is a good view. I grew up in Melbourne, and whilst not exactly a fan of AFL, when I first moved to canberra, i went along to an AFL match at Manuka Oval, and frankly, those traditional, small grounds are a completely different - and IMO a far better - experience.
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
Yeah its really tough... I also think that Ice Hocky suffers from the old "I went to a fight and an ice hockey match broke out" line, and as funny as it is (I still cant wipe the smile off my face), I think there is a kernel of truth there, or at least there is in the minds of mums, the demishing popularity of full contact sport amongst juniors (for the first time ever, there was an age and weight restricted junior rugby league tournament held in sydney last week) means that it is going to be tough for ice. Speaking from my own experience, one of my very best mates has played inline hockey (at state level through juniors), and i trained with his team and spent a lot of time going to watch him play. The problem that I had was that it was just so damn expensive to get started. While I was training, I was borrowing gear from him, but the reality was that my parents couldn't afford to fork out for the gear. I have considered inline in recent times, but there simply is no presence in Canberra. I'm not sure what kind of dovetailing there is between inline and ice, but considering they have two different, seperate governing bodies, i'm assuming not well. Its a shame, because as you say johnno, you cant go down to the lake and play hockey all winter, but there are penty of school halls now(!) as well as the traditional skating rinks (although we don't even have one of those in Canberra anymore) where inline can be played, and that can only have positive effects for the highest level of the sport which is Ice.
Johnno
Guest
I just can't see with australias climate us ever haveing a strong ice hockey culture. Many people in canada can play ice hokcye outside not in Australia. Rinks and all that expensive and no junior develpment here to.
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
Frankie... wow, where to begin... Firstly, the Storm have a passionate supporter base, small, but parochial, if anything, they don't get the coverage they deserve in the southern states, where they are perpetually shunned by News (who ironically own the storm!) and Fairfax alike... I grew up in Melbourne, admittedly to migrant parents, but have followed the Storm since day one. Furthermore, now that I live in Canberra, I see that there is really a horses for courses approach to sports journalism. The raiders, the brumbies and "Queanbeyan's Mark Webber" (as he's constantly referred to as) dominate the sports news, along with the regional AFL comp, the full blown comp barely gets a mention here. With that said, the ABL launched with much pomp and ceremony here, and with a swanky new A grade diamond to play on to boot. As for the Knights, I saw an ad for them in my local paper the other day, I was unable to go, but I'd never heard of them before, and they are the oldest team in the league! I have been googling and searching, but after 15min, I finally found out how much the tickets are ($18 for adults)... Maybe the AIHL and the ABL are "too American", but then even soccer struggles for mainstream media attention, maybe they are all just "un-Australian". It is easy to hate, but the reality is that News/Fairfax have a strong, financial, interest in promoting NRL, AFL and Cricket... Articles like this one will help boost awareness (I'm draging the wife down the Knights vs Ice Dogs on Saturday night), my point is that you'll actually get more sympathy from Storm fans than you'd think, people up here (Canberra) cant believe the way the Storm get treated down there considering they have one of the best teams to play in the modern era (even post-salary cap scandal) at the moment, they are a truely world class team, but the NRL/Media aren't pushing it at all... What hope do the smaller games have if even the NRL cant get coverage?
Frankie
Guest
In Melbourne, I know plenty more people into the AIHL than the NRL. The difference is, the NRL is owned by News Ltd and they of course are Australia's media and it is in their interest to prop up a game that is irrelevant outside of suburban Sydney.