Hockey World Cup: Ryde Hunters Hill teammates Tim Brand, Tom Craig and Lachlan Sharp go for gold
They grew up together, lived together and are now lining up alongside each other at the FIH Hockey World Cup. Meet Ryde’s Kookaburra trio as they push for world cup glory.
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If you spend enough time wandering around the hotel of the Australian men’s hockey team as it prepares for the FIH Hockey World Cup in India, you’re likely to see Tim Brand, Tom Craig and Lachlan Sharp together at some stage.
Whether it’s playing cards, grabbing a coffee or simply having a laugh, the trio just seem to gravitate towards each other in these kinds of environments.
And while the Kookaburras squad are pretty tight-knit squad, you’d be hard-pressed to find teammates as close as Tim, Tom and Lachie.
The trio and their families have a long, intertwined history that has carried them from the Sydney suburb of Ryde westwards to Perth, onto the Tokyo Olympic Games, to Amsterdam and now Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, India, for the 2023 FIH World Cup.
Tomahawks and premierships
It all started around 15 years ago, when Sharp’s older brother and sister played with Craig in junior NSW representative teams – and a young Lachie would be dragged along to watch.
“I played with his older brother and sister, we’d go away on the same tour and Lachie was maybe nine, out on the turf at half-time, hitting tomahawks – he was always around,” says Craig, now 27.
Sharp, now 25, adds: “That’s how we met the Craig family. My dad was interested in coming down to Sydney to play, and obviously with Tom at Ryde we formed a good connection there.”
With the first connections formed, a few years later Lachie – who grew up in Lithgow – started travelling down to Sydney himself to play for the Ryde Hunters Hill Panthers, a club that would later play an important role in all of their lives.
“I played year after year from there, and my dad even ended up coaching Ryde later in my career, which was pretty special as well.”
“To a premiership,” Craig chimes in. “The first premiership in 52 years!”
While Craig was injured for the legendary 2015 grand final win, he has vivid memories of the side’s run to the title.
“It was pretty funny, Lach’s dad was the coach and he had a term for the young guys up front: the little shits,” he laughs.
“But it was great because these guys were smaller than everyone, more skilful than everyone and would just wreak havoc against these grown men, which was hilarious. And Lachie actually scored the winning goal in the grand final, which was awesome.”
Another one of the ‘little shits’ in that Ryde premiership-winning team was Tim Brand.
Then just 17, he is another with a long-winded history with his current Kookaburras teammates, having been coached by Craig’s brother Ben – himself a former national team representative – in junior development camps.
“I always knew Tom because we were around the club,” says Brand, 24.
“He always looked up to me,” Craig says with a grin.
“He always envied me a bit,” Brand spits back.
“We actually grew up five minutes away from each other, which is pretty rare for a sport like hockey,” adds Craig.
While the trio might have had some luck bumping into each other the years, it’s clear that they all credit the Ryde Hunters Hill club with providing them with the platform to excel and go on to represent the national team.
“It’s a pretty tight community at Ryde and there are really great people in the club who connect people – they really drive the good community spirit,” says Craig.
“They really care,” he adds. “We’re always getting messages, regardless of how many teams we’ve made or how many tournaments we’ve gone to. There’s always a group of people who message, say congratulations and just check in on how we’re going.
“I don’t know of any other clubs where there are three people of a similar age – my brother as well, he played for Australia before that – who have all come through together and could have played in the same team. We’ve actually all come back and played together at Ryde since playing for Australia and that’s really special.”
From teammates to housemates
Their time playing first grade together at Ryde was limited though, as Craig – the eldest of the trio – received a scholarship from Hockey Australia and subsequently moved to Perth with the national team set-up.
However it wasn’t long before he was joined by some familiar faces, with Brand and Sharp following in the years after.
And it was here that the Ryde boys rekindled their connection by living together in one almighty house share – along with fellow Kookaburras defender Tim Howard.
“That’s a pretty standard thing that happens,” says Craig. “You might know one or two people in the team, and often you’d move over and live with them.”
So it was in Perth that the trio got to know each other as not only teammates, but housemates.
“We do have specific skills, I’d say,” Sharp laughs.
Brand grins: “We’ve got our roles.”
“We call Tom ‘dad’,” says Sharp. “He looked after all the house stuff, admin, did a lot of the cooking.”
“All inclusive,” Craig confirms.
“I was more of a sous chef,” Brand adds.
“Timmo (Howard) and Lach tidied up a lot, Lach did the bins and the outside area, mowing, gardening,” says Craig.
Indeed, living in such close quarters, they quickly got to know each other’s quirks and preferences, with Queenslander Howard outed as a “one-meal specialist” when it came to cooking.
“He could cook, but he could only cook pasta bake,” says Craig.
“Early on there was a bit of pretending about not knowing what he was going to cook. ‘What are you thinking? Bla bla bla.’ And he’d say: ‘Oh, I’m just thinking of doing a pasta bake or something,’” he laughs.
Aside from the daily chores, living together allowed the boys to bond on a deeper level over the course of their three years in Perth.
“I reckon it definitely added connections,” says Craig. “It’s not just about growing up together, but living together, you just have more opportunities to have little conversations. And like anyone, if you spend more time with them, you know how to push them, when to push them or when not to push them.”
Brand notes that these connections have also helped their combinations on the pitch.
“It was always good to be able to chat about things happening at training and games,” he says.
“It was more so around tournaments and definitely in the Olympic year, there was definitely a heightened focus on hockey,” he added.
“I’d definitely say that you have better connections with some people than others. It could be subconscious, but it’s pretty easy playing with these guys (Craig and Sharp). Maybe it’s because of how they play or because I’ve known them for so long.”
Going for gold
Looking ahead to the tournament, the world number one Kookaburras will go into the world cup as the favourites.
And following a successful 2022 that saw the team claim the Commonwealth Games title, the boys say they have one goal in mind for the world cup – gold.
“That’s always our main focus, to come away winning a tournament, and especially a big tournament like this,” says Sharp.
“We try to build throughout the tournament. So we’re not looking at the gold medal match right now, we’re looking at the first game against France, and then we’ll look to build on our performance every game.”
In fact, as the Kookaburras prepare for their opening hit-out on Friday, the boys have reflected on how the word cup has actually provided them with an opportunity for a reunion of sorts.
Both Craig and Brand have been playing in the Dutch Hoofdklasse hockey competition in recent months, breaking up the Kookaburras’ awesome foursome.
“We’ve split it up into two groups,” says Caig. “Tim (Brand) and I are living in Holland together, and Lachie and Timmo (Howard) are living in Perth together.”
So, it’s perhaps no surprise that the Ryde contingent can be found more often than not together somewhere in the team’s hotel.
“None of us are in the same room, thank god,” laughs Brand. “But we still hang out with each other and play cards.”
And just what type of cards do the lads play when preparing for a world cup? Texas Hold’em, Yahtzee?
“We normally play 500,” says Craig. “If it was poker, we’d be in trouble, because Tim’s a shark!”
The Kookaburras kick off their world cup campaign against France at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar, at 8:30pm AEDT on Friday night.
Originally published as Hockey World Cup: Ryde Hunters Hill teammates Tim Brand, Tom Craig and Lachlan Sharp go for gold
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