The Australian men’s hockey team, the Kookaburras, has been named Team of the Year at the AIS Sports Performance Awards (ASPAs). The ASPAs recognise Australia’s leading athletes, teams and coaches, and celebrate their outstanding achievements in high performance sport. The Kookaburras held off stiff competition from the Australian netball team, the Diamonds, and the Australian para rugby team, the Steelers, to secure the award.
Kookaburras honoured
The accolade acknowledges an outstanding year for men’s hockey in which the Kookaburras successfully defended their World Cup title with a thrilling display in the 6-1 grand final win over the Netherlands before going on to win a fifth consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medal with a 4-0 win over India. Those results were followed up by a young, less experienced team securing bronze at the Champions Trophy in December, Australia’s seventh consecutive Champions Trophy podium finish.
Paul Gaudoin accepts the award
Explaining what he sees as the major reasons for the team’s success in 2014, Assistant Coach Paul Gaudoin said, “Post-2012, the Olympics, there was a certain shift of building our culture up again. From a psychology point of view that’s been a point of difference and we’ve worked very hard.
“The sacrifice and the time that the athletes have put in over the last 18 months to two years has been phenomenal from what I’ve seen. It’s also probably the hardest I’ve worked!
“That culture shift certainly changed the way we prepared, we trained and pushed ourselves to an even higher level and the rewarding results in the end were testament to that hard work.”
Paying tribute to the Australian Institute of Sport and the Australian Sports Commission for their support, which Gaudoin labelled “valuable”, he added, “They’re our principal partners and allow us to do what we do, and without their support it gets difficult. I’m including all our sponsors and supporters but certainly the Sports Commission is crucial to our success.”
The award comes hot on the heels of the International Hockey Federation’s announcement last month of captain Mark Knowles as FIH 2014 Player of the Year and former coach Ric Charlesworth as FIH 2014 Coach of the Year.
22 Kookaburras are currently competing in the Hockey India League, which runs until 22 February. Following their return to Australia, the team will prepare for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia in April ahead of their first opportunity to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the World League Semi Final tournament in Belgium in June
Go Hockey News comments
This prestigious award is one hockey players in Australia can join in on the celebration. For a sport that struggles to find major sponsors, extensive media support, is reliant on government funding, and having dedicated players who give up so much to represent their country it is a mammoth effort by the Kookaburras and all supporting staff when you compare hockey to the wealthier sports in Australia. Let us hope that the media changes its narrow sport coverage views and supports Australia’s most significant male and female sport, true family sport, and ‘lifelong participation’ sport. On behalf of hockey players in Australia well done KOOKABURRAS – we are proud of you.
Source: Hockey Australia / FiH news
