CEO Update

As we move closer to Round 1 of the 2022 Competition Season, I am writing to provide an update to the Victorian Hockey Community on the range of activities, projects and events which have been happening in recent months. Furthermore, I wanted to provide some insights into some of the exciting projects on the sports agenda for 2022.

Our year kicked off with a significant amount of recruitment, off the back of some long-standing staff Sash Herceg, Michaela Cook, and Mike Fox moving onto industry roles in late 2021 and early 2022. This change has resulted in a range of new faces across our business and the promotion of long-standing staff David Bourke and Ben Seccull. 

Recruitment has kicked off at the grass roots level as well across the state, with 64 Hookin2Hockey centres operating and over 1,550 new participants picking up a stick in February & March so far. Off the back of well attended academy and development programs, the under 18 & 15 State Teams have been selected and look forward to traveling to the National Championships in April.

In the coaching & officiating space, The Game Development Team led by Peter Wroblewski have rolled out our first pilot of the coach & umpire developer program aligned to our Under 18 & 15 State Team preparations.  This program is providing emerging and developing club coaches and identified umpires with targeted mentorship and development over an 8-week period.  It is planned for this program to continue in line with other State Team preparations.  

February & March has seen us deliver 4 Indoor Clubs Championships, with 79 teams using the new state-of-the-art Indoor Court at Parkville. In addition, we delivered the inaugural Junior Indoor Challenge for Pennant & Metro level players with a total of 16 Under 12 and Under 14 teams involved. 

Whilst on Indoor, we have introduced a Women’s Masters Indoor Competition during Term 1 and there is strong interest in continuing this competition on a Monday night in Term 2.   We are running more midweek Indoor Hockey competition at the State Hockey Centre in 2022. Expressions of interest are now out with clubs, so if you are keen to have a second or third game of Hockey this winter with friends, we encourage you to get involved this year. The offer is a wonderful opportunity for local clubs in diversifying playing opportunities to their junior members as well.

Three weeks ago, we saw a record 32 teams and close to 300 participants take part in our annual Stand Out Cup. Those who attended would agree it’s a wonderful display of the inclusive and progressive nature of our game.

Outdoor Summer competitions have been operating with approximately 60 Teams and the Competitions Team have been working with all Competition Affiliates in our preparations for the Senior & Mid-Week Masters competition kicking off in the first week of April.

Early participation trends indicates that our team entries and participation amongst seniors and masters’ groups are consistent with 2021.   Junior team entries are due in the coming weeks which will provide us an overall picture of junior participation. 

To support clubs in fielding teams and building club playing stocks we were pleased to announce a 5-match membership in 2022. Providing a cheaper price point to encourage players back to Hockey who for a range of reasons cannot commit to a full season. We have contacted all lapsed players since 2018 to advise them of this opportunity and we hope to see this drive a return to the game for many of our members.

A New Sub-Continent Steering Committee has been established in early 2022. This group will work with our Inclusion & Diversity Manager, Narasimhan Ravi, and the HV Team to focus on the further growth and engagement with the subcontinent community of the Northwest of Melbourne.

The other exciting initiative is our appointment of a Regional Hockey Coordinator in Bendigo.  The role will be focussed on building capacity and capability across North Central HA, Hockey Central Victoria (Bendigo) & Goulburn Valley HA. Our ambition is to use the 12-month pilot to drive our model to deploy multiple Regional Hockey Coordinators across the state into the future.

Informing this future blueprint for resources in Regional Victoria will be the development of a 2023-2036 Infrastructure & Growth Strategy. The HV Board & Management will work with State & Local Government and InsideEDGE consulting to develop & cost the strategy in 2022. The strategy will then inform HV and our key stakeholder’s approach to achieving and funding the plan over the next 15 years.

In another development, HV is working behind the scenes on a project focussed on developing Parkville to be the ‘Home of Hockey’. We plan to engage with the community in 2022 and seek your input into how we make the State Hockey Centre a place which celebrates Hockey’s history and is a place to come and enjoy for the Hockey family.   

Commercially, we are delighted that all of our HC Melbourne partners are onboard again for Season 2 of Hockey One which will be played in October and November 2022.  In addition to this, we are delighted to have Grassports Australia coming on board as a partner for the next 2 years. They are experts in the installation and maintenance of synthetic sports surfaces and will be the naming rights sponsor of the JCC, SCC and JSC. In addition to that, they will be the Ball Patrol sponsor for the Game Clothing Premier League, with all Premier League Clubs set to receive jackets for their ball patrol to wear.

Last week, we also made the announcement that all HV Game Clothing Premier League match of the round content will be available free and not behind a paywall.  This is fantastic for the keen Victorian Hockey supporter but even more exciting as the majority of Premier Hockey around Australia is now live on LiveHockey.com.au driven by Clutch TV. 

From a High-Performance perspective, we have had many starts and stops working to provide our elite talent with opportunities.  Including plans to play Adelaide Fire in Adelaide in some friendlies to playing NSW Pride and Canberra in Canberra as part of the Capital Challenge.  COVID-19 has unfortunately challenged this and resulted in the cancellation of the tours.  Whilst these setbacks have been a challenge for the players, coaches, and support staff, we are delighted with the opportunities a range of our junior talent who have in past week been on National camps in Queensland and the selection of Craig Marais into the Kookaburra’s Squad in Perth.  Craig’s selection means we now have four men in the National Squad.  Rachel Lynch’s retirement from International Hockey and the reduction in the Women’s Squad size has also resulted in Amy Lawton being the stand-alone Victorian female player in the Women’s National squad. 

Back on the home front again, the clear feedback from our members since returning to a business-as-usual rhythm has been that they want to see more of the HV team ‘boots on the ground’. We understand and agree with this feedback. The last two years COVID-19 impact has seen us fall into a centralised management mode with plenty of Zoom & Team interactions.

Our team will be out more in 2022, ensuring clubs needs are met at the grass roots level in rebuilding memberships and ultimately driving the overall participation in Victoria.

On behalf of HV, I look forward to what will hopefully be a full year of Hockey activities for all our stakeholders to enjoy from club Hockey to the rebirth of Hockey Club Melbourne playing in the Sultana Bran Hockey One League later in 2022.