The Australian men’s hockey team, the Kookaburras, has been named Team of the Year at the AIS Sports Performance Awards (ASPAs).
The ASPAs recognise Australia’s leading athletes, teams and coaches, and celebrate their outstanding achievements in high performance sport.
The accolade acknowledges an outstanding year for men’s hockey in which the Kookaburras successfully defended their World Cup title with a thrilling display in the 6-1 grand final win over the Netherlands before going on to win a fifth consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medal with a 4-0 win over India. Those results were followed up by a young, less experienced team securing bronze at the Champions Trophy in December, Australia’s seventh consecutive Champions Trophy podium finish.
Explaining what he sees as the major reasons for the team’s success in 2014, Assistant Coach Paul Gaudoin said, “Post-2012, the Olympics, there was a certain shift of building our culture up again. From a psychology point of view that’s been a point of difference and we’ve worked very hard.
“The sacrifice and the time that the athletes have put in over the last 18 months to two years has been phenomenal from what I’ve seen. It’s also probably the hardest I’ve worked!
“That culture shift certainly changed the way we prepared, we trained and pushed ourselves to an even higher level and the rewarding results in the end were testament to that hard work.”
Paying tribute to the Australian Institute of Sport and the Australian Sports Commission for their support, which Gaudoin labelled “valuable”, he added, “They’re our principal partners and allow us to do what we do, and without their support it gets difficult. I’m including all our sponsors and supporters but certainly the Sports Commission is crucial to our success.”
The award comes hot on the heels of the International Hockey Federation's announcement last month of captain Mark Knowles as FIH 2014 Player of the Year and former coach Ric Charlesworth as FIH 2014 Coach of the Year.
Source: Hockey Australia
