Australian men’s hockey team sign new major sponsor after worrying period without backing

In one of the greatest examples of brand association in Australian sport, the country’s men’s hockey team have finally signed a new major partner.

The Kookaburras have landed a new shirt sponsor.

The Australian men’s hockey team’s six month long search for a major front of shirt sponsor reported in CODE Sports earlier this year is finally over.

In perhaps the most literal example of that overused phrase in sports sponsorship, ‘brand synergy’, the Kookaburras have signed a three year deal with their namesake, Australian sporting goods brand Kookaburra Sport.

Hockey Australia’s deal with Fortescue ended at the close of 2023, with Kookaburras goalkeeper Andrew Charter writing an impassioned plea on LinkedIn about the sponsor issues.

“For the first time in my 14 year career I was presented with my playing jersey lacking a major front-of-shirt sponsor,” the post said.

The Kookaburras model their new Kookaburra branded kits.

Hockey Australia CEO David Pryles said at the time a complicating issue for landing a sponsor in an Olympic year where hockey’s teams are at their most visible were the IOC rules restructuring commercial partners from having any public connection to the sport for a period before, during and after the Games.

“We can share IOC content but we can’t reference Olympics, nor our partners reference the Olympics for those six weeks,” Pryles explained.

“We can’t be seen to be commercialising the fact that our teams are in the Olympics.”

It is likely this sponsorship would be restricted similarly despite Kookaburra Sport’s role as a ball supplier to the Olympics.

Hockeyroos Mariah Williams and Great Hayes will also benefit from the deal.

The sponsorship will also see the brand partner with the Australian women’s team, the Hockeyroos, as a skirt sponsor.

Kookaburra Sport will not become the apparel partner of Hockey Australia, with O’Neills remaining in that role through to at least 2025.

Best known as a cricket brand, Kookaburra Sport manufactured hockey balls for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and have been used at every Games ever since. The original naming of the men’s team as the Kookaburras tied in with a previous sponsorship deal with the company more than 30 years ago.

Pryles says its “one of the best brand alignments in Australian sport”, while Charters can now get on with saving goals rather than answering LinkedIn comments.

“I was getting a little bit tired of being asked by the media constantly about it so it’s amazing,” he said.

Originally published as Australian men’s hockey team sign new major sponsor after worrying period without backing