World crown forged in Perth
When the Kookaburras carried out a 6-1 demolition of the Netherlands on Sunday, it was a testament to the Perth-based high-performance centre that has turned the country's best hockey players into world champions.
The elite training centre at the Perth Hockey Stadium in Bentley has catapulted the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos to international success, culminating in World Cup gold and silver medals for the men's and women's teams in the Netherlands at the weekend.
The Kookaburras have now won back-to-back World Cup titles and the emphatic victory over the home side in The Hague was a fitting farewell for renowned coach Ric Charlesworth, who will retire after the Commonwealth Games and who said yesterday that his team "played the best hockey in the world".
Back home in Perth high-performance centre staff and remaining members of the 30-strong men's squad were celebrating the victory, which operations manager Andrew Smith said was reward for the players' huge sacrifices, particularly those who had moved interstate.
"The strength of us as a whole group, athletes and staff, we very much have a 'team first' mentality and culture," he said.
Despite being in two of the country's most successful international sporting teams, most of the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos players balance daily training and regular competitions with full-time or part-time work.
Olympic gold medallist Jamie Dwyer is one of a handful to make a living from the sport, but his profile in Australia is low compared with in hockey-mad Netherlands, where he is often recognised, and in India, where he stars in the Hockey India League.
When they return to Perth with the World Cup this week, Mr Smith said most players would resume their lives as engineers, plumbers, university students or finance workers while turning their minds to the looming Commonwealth Games.
"It comes at a big personal cost and they don't get the financial recognition for their performance and sacrifice," Mr Smith said. "When every day we see cricket, AFL and soccer players earning obscene amounts of money, it's very frustrating when we've got two teams who walk out with gold and silver in the benchmark event for hockey and they're struggling to gain recognition and support."
The high-performance centre was created in 1984, when hockey was the first sport to be established outside the Australian Institute of Sport's Canberra headquarters.
Hockey WA chief executive Peter Churack said the presence of the country's 60 best hockey players meant the State's competition was one of the best in the world.
"It's a big deal for us," Mr Churack said.
"It's the only Australian high-performance program to be located in WA and we've got the world champions, we're pretty chuffed."
He said the Bentley stadium's new Greenfield surface, identical to that used in the World Cup, and its world-class facilities provided an excellent training ground.
Tasmanian-born hockey player Nick Budgeon quit his job at a finance firm in Hobart last year to move to Perth after he was picked in the national development squad.
He made his debut for the Kookaburras last year and said it had been a worthwhile sacrifice.
"If I was just coming over every few months, you wouldn't have that vigilance that you get training with the full group day in, day out," Budgeon said.
