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You’re 33 now. How long do
you think you could continue to
compete at the highest level?
I would like to compete until the next
World Cup, whether I’m going to or not
I’m not sure. I’ve got a young family
now and a lot of other things going on
in my life, so I’ll have to reassess how
this year goes after the Olympics.
So you find that it takes longer
to recover after an injury?
I’ve been pretty lucky with injuries other
than the cartilage in my knee last year
and 2003 when I did my ACL, apart
from that I’ve been lucky.
Weekly training I have to manage a bit
better. I’m still as fit and fast, but I find
that I have to have one less day per
week so that I can recover better. If I
stick to this schedule, I think I could go
for a few more years.
You’ve obviously played at the
highest level and you’ve played
in the Netherlands, how does
that compare to playing state
league here and competitions
around the rest of the world?
In Holland there’s a big following,
hockey is semi-professional, and at the
moment there are a lot of foreigners in
the competition and the competition is
really good. Here in Australia it’s a little
bit difficult because of the size of the
country to have a national program for
6-7 months of the year, so I just play in
my local Perth comp. It’s also difficult
because there are so many sports
played in Australia which other people
follow. It’s difficult to keep every one
involved and for them to keep playing
the sport. In Holland I think it’s pretty
exciting, the structure is different.. For
me personally, I enjoyed playing over
there for 5 years. I played in a very
good team, made a lot of friends, and
had a great time on the field, enjoying
some success as well. It was good to
play over there, but for me now I think
I’ll just stay in Perth and enjoy the club
season here.
Why do you think hockey is so
popular in the Netherlands?
I’m not sure actually! I guess it’s on
the internet a lot, their women’s team
is going really well, the girls are quite
attractive, so maybe the young girls
that are looking for sporting hero’s are
looking up to them – that they might
want to be like them when they grow
up.
They started training with the men’s
teams in the 90’s and that’s carried
through to now, that’s been very
successful.
They’ve got less sports to contend
with – they’ve only really got football
(soccer), ice skating and tennis. Hockey
is probably one of the most popular
games to play. Here in Australia we’ve
got (national competitions for) Aussie
rules, soccer, rugby union, rugby
league and basketball.
Australia punches well above
its weight in terms of success
in both men’s and women’s
hockey. If you compare it to the
professionalism of the leagues
in Europe where they get to
play top players week in and
week out, it seems strange
that Australia has had so much
success. Why do you think that
is?
I think it’s our culture, about playing
sport. We have a lot of people playing
the sport here – there are 150,000
people registered to play hockey. In
Holland it’s around 300,000 people. I
think it’s the way we go about our sport
– we love our sport. I guess it’s also
the sports science involved: we follow
America a little bit in that, it’s pretty hi-
tech nowadays. The Australian Institute
of Sport has set up a programme for
sports like hockey, if we didn’t have
that we wouldn’t have the success. It’s
a lot of things. It’s the culture, it’s the
way we look at sport, the programmes
that they have set up at the Australian
Institute of Sport which has helped us
to improve in the sport in both men’s
and women’s teams.
I would love to see more and more gold
medals from hockey and all the other
sports. I think it’s really important for
kids to want to get out and meet new
friends, to play a sport, to stay fit and
healthy. Very important in our country.
It’s important to know the history of the
Kookaburras. We are possibly the most
successful team in Olympics history.
We haven’t come outside the top 4
since 1971 so we have provided a lot
of medals in the Olympics and world
cups. I think it’s such an entertaining
game. When people go to see a really
high level game, they see that it’s a
very exciting and skillful game. I think to
watch it live it’s better than the majority
of sports. I think we need to let people
know how cool the sport is!!!
You’ve had a number of
successes and achievements
over the years, what would
you say are your biggest
achievements both on the field
and off the field?
Definitely winning the 2004 Olympics
gold medal and hitting the winning goal
in. Off field – the birth of my two sons
– Julian and Taj – definately a very,
very special moment in my life, as all
fathers would agree.
Thank you – you’re the top name
in the game and it’s really good
to be able to interview you for
this feature. We wish you every
success for the Olympics
.
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