‘It doesn’t really hit your socials’: is this Australia’s best kept sporting secret? | Sarah Guiney
If there is one thing Australians pride themselves on, it’s playing sport in the elements.From long days of cricket at the height of summer, the sun beating down harsh and unforgiving, to mud-soaked footy in the dead of winter.It’s a test of character, and Australians wear it like a badge of honour.So perhaps it is a surprise that Australia has yet to embrace ice hockey; tucked away in rinks so cold you need a puffer jacket just to sit and watch, even during summer.Combine that with its speed and brutal physicality, and it seems to tick every box.
It might just be this country’s best kept sporting secret.That’s all starting to change.The sport is having a moment, and Matt Armstrong, a stalwart of Melbourne’s ice hockey community, is thrilled at the prospect.“It’s almost like an underground sport,” he says.“No one really knows about it, and then once you do, you’re hooked.
”Armstrong has witnessed this groundswell of interest first-hand, having been involved with the O’Brien Icehouse Hockey Academy since 2010.Back then, there were just two classes offered.He now runs the academy – and it looks markedly different.“We see over 1,200 students on the calendar year,” he says.“We run hockey camps, we bring overseas coaches in.
We try to give the Australian hockey player the best opportunity to pursue the sport.”As well as junior development pathways, there is also increasing demand for adult classes.“Beer leagues” – a term borrowed from North America that feels at home here – have exploded in popularity, with IceHQ in Reservoir now offering more than 10 divisions.“Unlike in North America, where you have younger kids getting into the sport, and they’re so excited and passionate – they try all the coloured laces, the coloured tape – here, it’s all the young professionals and young adults,” Armstrong says.Outside expats raised on the sport, ice hockey seems to be growing by sheer word of mouth.
With so little funding and such a heavy reliance on volunteers, anything that calls attention to its mere existence is beneficial.“There’s not a lot of people who know about it, unless you have a mate who’s in it,” Armstrong says.“It doesn’t really hit your socials.We’re trying to expose it a little bit more.We just need to get the game out there.
”Visibility of the professional game overseas plays a huge role,The Winter Olympics drive a lot of interest, and Armstrong expects another uptick in participation after this year’s Games in Milano-Cortina,Off the back of the 2023 Global Series in Melbourne, the NHL is as easy to access as it has ever been: every game is live on Disney+,The PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) in North America streams games for free on YouTube,There is also pop culture.
Heated Rivalry, the gay hockey romance that’s a global hit, has helped bring the sport into Australian public consciousness.The show has flooded social media, increasing awareness of ice hockey but also prompting genuine interest.Movies like The Mighty Ducks have long functioned in a similar way: once curiosity has been piqued, people seek out local offerings.Christina Julien has played for Melbourne Ice Women, in the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey League (affectionately called the “A-Dub”), for close to a decade.A dual sport athlete who also played football for Canada, she has been integral to the growth of women’s ice hockey since moving to Australia.
Julien speaks of a newly expanded league that is more popular than ever.“[When] we played in the first Melbourne derby, I looked up and it was like, a sold-out stadium,” she says.“It was a packed house, and people were having a great time.That was amazing to see.In past years, potentially we’d get that for finals, but it’s starting to creep into our regular season games.
”Melbourne has just three rinks to accommodate all ice sports – including figure skating, speed skating, and curling – making competition for ice time fierce.But having the entire hockey cohort under essentially one roof, rather than separated out into clubhouses, fosters a strong sense of camaraderie.“It’s definitely a close knit community here in the ice hockey world,” Julien says.“You go in and you basically know everyone at the rink: working at the rink, or they work for another team, or you’ve played against them.”Ice hockey’s survival here is a labour of love, and you need only get down to a game to witness that love writ large.
To see the skill on display, but to also see the rich tapestry of jerseys up in the stands, heralding teams far beyond those competing: from North American and European leagues, beer leagues, and even fictional teams.It’s a kaleidoscope of colour, a living, breathing love letter, and you can’t help but be drawn into it.“I think the cool thing about Australia is that the people that don’t know about it, when they do hear about it and they do come to a game, they’re kind of amazed by it all,” Julien says.“There’s a high probability that you’ll fall in love with it and really enjoy yourself.”
Game On: the Swiss sports brand using hi-tech and chutzpah to challenge Nike and Adidas
A robot leg whirs around in a complex ballet as an almost invisible spray of “flying fibre” builds a hi-tech £300 sports shoe at its foot.This nearly entirely automated process – like a sci-fi future brought to life – is part of the gameplan from On, the Swiss sports brand that is taking on the sector’s mighty champions Nike and Adidas with a mix of technology and chutzpah.The brand is expanding rapidly after teaming up with the former tennis pro Roger Federer to create shoes suitable for the Swiss star’s sport and a mix of fashion-led collaborations including with the luxury brand LOEWE, actor Zendaya and singers FKA twigs and Burna Boy. In China, sales have doubled year-on-year. Growth has been strong in the US and mainland Europe and this month On will open its fourth London store, in Kensington
Trump move for Venezuela’s resources likely to weaken economic might of US | Heather Stewart
The word “loot” entered the English language from Hindi in the late 18th century, as the rapacious East India Company plundered its way across the subcontinent.It was a trading company, not a state – but it had the imprimatur of the English crown and its own large private army, mingling commerce and military force and opening the way for British imperial dominance of India.Donald Trump’s dead-of-night raid on Venezuela last week was the act of a government, not a corporation. But it harked back to a more brazen age, when looting a continent for its resources at the point of a cannon was regarded as a legitimate activity for an English gentleman.The US president made no effort to disguise the fact that the main motivation for the snatching of Nicolás Maduro was taking control of Venezuelan oil reserves on behalf of the fossil fuel companies that helped bankroll Trump’s re-election
Behind the Somali daycare panic is a mother-and-son duo angling to be top Maga influencers
YouTube influencer Nick Shirley, whose viral video alleging fraud by daycare centers servicing Minneapolis’s Somali American community came days ahead of the Trump administration’s declaration of a national funding freeze, has for years published conspiracy-minded takes on hot-button rightwing issues.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.He also has close ties to the White House, Republicans, and to representatives of an earlier generation of rightwing partisan “ambush journalists” such as James O’Keefe
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Ashes calamity has trashed McCullum’s credibility. It’s time to call on Alec Stewart | Mark Ramprakash
The curtain came down on the Ashes in Sydney with England again being outplayed in the basics of the game. But it is one thing to have a weak team, and another to have a talented one that just looks muddled.I was very optimistic going into the series because England had a quality group of players, many of them in their 20s – in my opinion their peak years – who had played a lot of international cricket together, come through a tough series against India, and appeared to have matured their approach, adding nuance and adaptability, evolving from their old one-size-fits-all swagger. Well, high expectations can be dangerous because if things don’t work out the disappointment is all the more profound.So I look at the wreckage of this series and all those high hopes and ask myself, did this management group – Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes – give the England squad the best chance of success? They all seem to be bullish that they can carry on and of the three it is hard to argue that Stokes should not: he’s the obvious leader in the group and there are not many other candidates
Jess Hull steers Australia to relay gold at world cross-country championships in US
The Olympic medalist Jess Hull has steered a star-studded Australian quartet to a mighty relay win at the world athletics cross-country championships in Florida.Ollie Hoare, Linden Hall, Jack Anstey and Hull took charge to claim gold in the 4x2000m mixed relay in Tallahassee on Saturday.It Australia’s fifth medal in the 46-edition history of the championships.The team clocked a time of 22min 23sec to win by three seconds ahead of France, followed by Ethiopia (22min 34sec), Kenya (22min 42sec) and the US (22min 43sec) among 15 teams.Hoare put the Australians in contention in the opening leg before Hall opened a lead of six seconds then Anstey consolidated and Hull commanded the anchor leg
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