Australia Hockey

[nemo 0]

Plus you get to see the country for free when you travel with your team. In Melbourne we have seen one or two Canadian guys actually stay in Melb and apply for citizenship because they enjoyed the AIHL experience.

Beware but, teams like Melbourne are highly competitive but suffer from a really crap rink.

Ur not by chance talking about the melbourne ice (i think) team are you?

[gagner89 0]

Any hockey out in Perth? Most of you guys seem to be in the East.

Might be taking a semester there, hope to play some hockey while I am there...

[Trudy14 0]

Plus you get to see the country for free when you travel with your team. In Melbourne we have seen one or two Canadian guys actually stay in Melb and apply for citizenship because they enjoyed the AIHL experience.

Beware but, teams like Melbourne are highly competitive but suffer from a really crap rink.

Ur not by chance talking about the melbourne ice (i think) team are you?

Yeah he is talking about the Ice.

[Aussie Joe 0]

Any hockey out in Perth? Most of you guys seem to be in the East.

Might be taking a semester there, hope to play some hockey while I am there...

Perth doesn't have an AIHL team atm, its hard to make a team's travel viable for that distance. In saying that it wouldn't suprise me if they entered a team in a few yrs the way airline tickets are going. Plus, they have a few decent players over there who could certainly play with the standard of the league.

Make sure you travel to Perth in Winter, in Jan they go through a period where its as hot as El Paso in summer.

The basic jist of an AIHL player experience is..

+ No payment, but travel, accomodation and ice fees are taken care of. You get to see the country for free and play hockey.

+ Most teams will try and hook you up with employment/personal sponsorship as much as they can. If you are a picky guy but you'll burn bridges soon with this.

+ Rinks vary in size all over Aus and thus allot of teams have very different styles.

+ Aus hockey is played in a more Canadian style overall, with smaller rinks then the rest of the world; its more physical and less "skate, pass, score" style.

+ Most guys (unless sponsored) bring their own gear over and do have to pay for it. Most Aus stores charge about 200%-300% over what you guys pay in Canada/US so its worth bringing your stuff over.

Hope all this helps.

[fatwabbit 93]

Perth hockey is pretty alright, its mainly inline at the moment as they are proposing a new ice rink.

Aussie Joe is right about the weather here... we had a pretty hot summer, had a couple of days where the temp hit 41 deg C. Even though the inline rinks were airconditioned, it still killed you. One thing about summer though, I love daylight savings... you leave the rink at about 9pm, when the sun is about to set.... great stuff...

[Aussie Joe 0]

Summer hockey in Melb is great too, relaxed league, great goofing with the refs. After the game, BBQ and Beers in the parking lot.

[nummer55 10]

How about inline leagues / rules / compensation? Is there some sort of highest league with a nice level of play, some sponsors, rink time taken care of? Is this the national association: http://www.ailha.com.au/?

[Aussie Joe 0]

No pro Inline in AUS, the national assoc has just merged, this is the new association AILHA folded during the merge process.

BTW, the state of inline in Aus is terrible and politics, fixture change and massive in fighting are common. The best advice is to stick with ice unless you want to play beer league inline.

[JJ Thompson94 0]

I'm sorry, I thought hockey was bad in America, I now feel spoiled.

[gagner89 0]

There's hope for hockey! Awesome.

I'll keep an eye out on this thread... if I do head over there I'll be sure to message you guys for more details :)

Thanks!

[Trudy14 0]

Am I the only one having trouble getting on the AIHL's league website?

http://www.theaihl.com.au/

[Aussie Joe 0]

No, its down for renovations I think; as the season is about to start in just under a month.

[Trudy14 0]

That explains it.

[Bender 0]

No pro Inline in AUS, the national assoc has just merged, this is the new association AILHA folded during the merge process.

BTW, the state of inline in Aus is terrible and politics, fixture change and massive in fighting are common. The best advice is to stick with ice unless you want to play beer league inline.

Pfft so much for the "merger" we always thought the Vilha (Victorian inline hockey) was un-organised until skate australia screwed us all over with the now infamous take-over. Now we have to travel far more to play at really terrible rinks. At least when it was a 2 hour drive for a moe match we got to play and a good rink! now it's a 2 hour drive to rosebud to play at a rink where you could score with a pass from the length of the rink!

[Aussie Joe 0]

Hence why I only play the occasional Beer League match at Puckys these days. I play ice now and whilst I travel more (on avg.) and pay way more in fees its worth it alone for the organisation and the stability alone the frozen format offers.

[Bender 0]

Do you know how puckhandlers compares to rinks in other states? I've been wondering about it for a while.... All i know is it's about the best in the state :)

[Aussie Joe 0]

I've played 3 lots of nationals on wood courts etc, also played in Germany. Puckhandlers was on par with the German rink and crapped all over any Nationals venue I've played at. I guess thats why it has hosted 2 lots of former AILHA champs in a row.

[SCATMAN 33]

Inline in ACT has folded. The only inline we play now is when we go to Melb for the Silver Cup, and of course the (maybe) 2 practices on B-ball courts before we go so we can stop lol

P.S. good idea starting this thread, now we know whos in Aus lol

[Bender 0]

Inline in ACT has folded. The only inline we play now is when we go to Melb for the Silver Cup

Yeah the silver cup is great, especally when we get some teams from other states coming down for it :)

[Aussie Joe 0]

Scatman OWNS silver cup, watch out for his Lygon St pasta fueled breakaways. ;-)

[fatwabbit 93]

haha... Lygon St is fantastic... I always stay at the South Bank near the casino when I'm in Melbourne...

[Aussie Joe 0]

Lygon St is trash! LOL. But the kids from Canberra have gotta stay somewhere with "ambience" so they go for Carlton.

So Fatty, whats the latet tally with Crown? Have you come out at in the loss or the win coloumn? ;)

[Bender 0]

Now I can't help but think this is beggining to get off track in a way, as he was asking about hockey in brisbane insted of melbourne... maybe Bigdipper should come down to Melbourne insted! :D

[james12lucy 0]

I figured I could lend a hand since I played with Queensland's only AIHL team. The Bluetongues moved from Brissy last year down to the Gold Coast. Ice is shit in the summer with 2 inches of water on top, no glass, no lines, etc. We did however, build two new "dressing rooms", and some sponsor boards down the one side of the rink. There were tonnes of holes/high spots on teh ice all season and the occassional wet spot, even with this year's cold winter.

Basically there are three places to play Ice in Queensland; Boondall, Acacia Ridge (sp?), and Bundall (Gold Coast). Bundall is the smallest of the rinks and hold no sumer league. There is a summer league in Brisbane as well as a winter league that covers all of South East Queensland. Both leagues have various skill levels to play in, but the two best are Brisbane's "A" League (full contact), and The Melbas Cup. The Melbas Cup is made up of all the best players in SE Queensland, and comprised of most of the Blue Tongues. It's a very fast league, for the most part, but is non contact. It's kept that way because there have been issues in the past, and to keep the Tongues fit and injury free.

Blue Tongue hockey is good, although this was a rebuilding year for us. We had the services of a few Pro guys (ie. Gaetan Royer) and a couple former Major Junior players. The league is great; travel benefits, good hockey, perfest weather, women that love hockey players, etc. The only downside is the cost of equipment. Do what I did and bring an extra allotment of sticks and equipment, and buy clothes here; it's cheaper that way. You can sell sticks and extra gear to almost anyone at any time. Most Aussies bring back more gear than they need when they head to North America and do the same thing.

Hit me with a PM if you've got any other questions. I'll also gladly supply equipment from Canada when I head back home in December to anyone that wants/needs it. I'll be pretty good with the shipping mark-up as well...

Cheers!

Lucy