Australia Men’s 2014 – Hockey 2.0
It is curious that a group of people tend to describe the Australian men’s style of playing by saying they play ‘
power hockey’ as if:
1. It is a pure matter of option and not ability, culture or knowledge, therefore if other teams chose it they would also able to play ‘power hockey’ and be successful…
2. Power as they only use strength, an optimal physical condition and a hard style of playing…
3. It is some kind of ‘cheating’ or unfair style of play: ‘Everyone lost big time with the Aussies but they play power hockey you know, is not even fair…’
Well… some people (
couch experts) hardly know something about sports and tend to resume their analysis to the most obvious indicator that in this case is the fact that the Australian players are effectively harder, faster and stronger than their opponents but fortunately Australia is much more than that almost negative connotation of ‘Power Hockey’.
This team was represented by a superb group of players, some in their career peak, which mastered every area of the game: physical, technical, strategical and mental leaded by a mastermind of the game mr Ric Charlesworth.
Some days ago, I read an interesting article by the former Dutch international
Rob Reckers in which he used a very pertinent quote from ice hockey legend
Wayne Gretzky to describe Australia supremacy – ‘
Don’t skate to where the puck is, skate to where the puck is going to be‘– a brilliant way to describe the primordial difference between Australia and the rest: the excellent use of the space.
Some interesting elements of Australian play:
- Using ‘push’ as preferable passing technique for mid range passing (instead of slapping);
- In the midfield excellent scanning skills (fast adapting body in a diagonal angles allowing quick vertical passing);
- Perfect use of deep areas (‘corners’ of the D), advanced receiving skills in the space;
- The difference between
being and
arriving to the receiving point was clear in the timing of ‘crowding’ the D when attacking, probably the most important characteristic of the Australian attack – how in ball possession the attackers never overcrowded the ‘D’ too soon while other teams have attackers already inside (giving the defensive team enough time to a good defensive positioning and making the D smaller and harder to penetrate);
- The previous point doesn’t change the fact that Australia always arrived in big numbers when attacking with perfect scoring positioning, shooting skills and remarkable agressivity and bravery (very clear in the rebounds, either in field situations as in penalty corners);
- Effective penalty corner (attacking and defending)
- Besides penalty strokes and few PC’s shooting reached predominantly low areas of the goal
Thank you Australia!