The top seven men’s and women’s Hockey5s nations in Oceania will go head-to-head on the Gold Coast from 10-14 July for the opportunity to be crowned inaugural champions of the Hockey5s Oceania Cup.
The tournament, which starts today and is being held at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre, will also see the top three teams from the men’s and women’s competitions qualify for the 2024 FIH Hockey5s World Cup to be held in Oman.
Australia is joined by Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu as the competing nations. Samoa was originally named but had to withdraw due to visa complications.
The men’s tournament begins with Tonga against Fiji at 11am AEST. Australia’s Men’s Team opens its campaign against the Solomon Islands at 12.40pm.
On the women’s side of the draw, Australia takes on Tonga at 3pm on the opening day.
All seven teams will play against each other once in a round-robin format with the top four teams progressing to the semi-finals.
Arguably the most anticipated matches of the round robin stage will be on Thursday 13 July as Australia’s teams take on their New Zealand counterparts.
Since the selection of Australia’s teams in early May, the players have been training in their home states and only congregated two days out from the tournament starting.
Respective coaches Keegan Popowski (women’s team) and Alistair Park (men’s team) said the preparation has been challenging.
However, the lack of training together has been overridden by the anticipation and excitement of being the first senior Australian teams to represent their country in Hockey5s.
“Obviously it has been a bit of a barrier with the distance of the girls around the country but we have had a few online meetings and everyone seems to have come together really well considering they’re not in the same place,” said Popowski.
“Some of the things we have been able to do is work on our structures and do some video analysis. It was great to have the team together on Saturday for two days of training and it’s going to be exciting to get underway on Monday.”
“The players understand the expectations and we want to perform well. It’s a pretty talented group, so we’re expecting a good crowd to support the team.”
For Park, he is optimistic despite the unknowns heading into the tournament.
“Everyone is super excited. It’s a fantastic opportunity to do something that no other Australian team has done which is to represent our country playing Hockey5s,” said Park.
“I’ve never been involved in something as unique as this, where we have been going about our business in our home states and then looking to come together a couple of days before the tournament and perform on the international stage.”
“It’s going to be a huge challenge. We spent a lot of time online together talking about our way of play and the plan of what we want it to look like.
“But the reality is we can have a plan and we have to be able to adapt on the fly and see what strings we have on the pitch.”
“A big focus for the tournament is to find out what we’ve got and building that out as much as we can.”
“’We’re going to come up against a diverse range of teams in Oceania, so that will test us in how we adapt to that as well.
Every match of the tournament will be livestreamed on LIVEHockey.
Of the list of officials taking part in the tournament, Australia is represented by Scott Reilly who has been appointed Technical Delegate, Kim Monoghan (Technical Official) and umpires Tim Sheahan and Iris Milham.
Click here for more information on the tournament.
The event has been made possible through the support of the City of Gold Coast, and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The first ever edition of the FIH Hockey5s World Cup is set to be played in Muscat, Oman from 24-31 January 2024, with 16 nations competing in both women’s and men’s competitions.
Hockey5s Oceania Cup World Cup Qualifier match schedule
Australian Hockey5s Teams for Oceania World Cup Qualifiers
Women’s Team
Madeline Dooley (ACT), Tegan Neowhouse (gk) (NSW), Holly Gilbar (QLD), Eva Kersovnoske (QLD), Jessica Moffat (QLD), Samantha Morris (QLD), Dacia Koelmeyer (VIC), Jayde Temby (gk) (VIC), Jamie Zimmerman (VIC), Sienna Berry (WA)
Coach: Keegan Popowski
Men’s Team
Logan Hunter (gk) (NSW), Jake McCann (NSW), Zac Profke (QLD), Jun Sugio (QLD), Joshua Commins (TAS), Liam Kerr-Nelson (VIC), Nathan McDonald (VIC), Mitchell Pace (WA), Callum Bridge (VIC), Jake McCann (NSW)
Coach: Alistair Park
What is Hockey5s
First played in preparation for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, Hockey5s is a super-fast, highly skilful, short format of hockey which is designed to be adaptable to multiple surfaces, environments and space. Hockey5s is an invasion game played between two teams with 4 field players and a goalkeeper. More information
Image courtesy of Major Events Gold Coast
