Immense stakes as Hockeyroos Olympic legacy, culture, bragging rights on line

Trinny Powell knows how high the stakes are as the Hockeyroos heads to a quarterfinal against a Chinese team coached by a gold medal teammate and supercoach.

Hockeyroos coach Trinny Powell already knew the impossibly high stakes of Monday’s quarterfinal against China before her WhatsApp group full of Australian hockey legends went silent.

As the Hockeyroos take on China in a knockout clash full of enticing narratives, every bold decision made in the past three years as well as the future direction of the sport is in full view.

In no particular order those stakes include:

The funding of the sport for these players heading into the next Olympic Games, slashed by 45 per cent after Tokyo and only partly restored leading into 2028 as part of the AOC’s decision-making on where to divvy up the cash.

Hockeyroos coach Katrina Powell. Picture: Supplied

The chance to enter the medal rounds and inspire the next generation of juniors after five consecutive Olympics without a women’s hockey medal of any colour as the golden generation’s achievements fade from view.

A validation of the new Hockeyroos culture these 16 athletes believe in so much they put out a strongly worded Instagram statement backing their progress after Rosie Malone’s non-selection saw old wounds unfairly picked over in the media.

The biggest chance to show they have learned the lessons of the Tokyo disaster, where an unbeaten Australia got stage fright after going down 1-0 in the quarterfinal to lowly India and never recovered despite five previous pool wins.

As a result Hockey Australia has funded that program by mindfulness expert Emma Murray and her offsider David Astburyand while it helped them win World Cup bronze in 2022, there is no bigger stage than the Olympics.

Bragging rights against a Chinese side that has improved from 14th to 8th in the world under the coaching of Australian dual gold medallist Alyson Annan and her coaching offsider Ric Charlesworth.

Dr Ric Charlesworth is helping guide the Chinese Picture: Marc McCormack

The Australian side played China eight times in practice matches and official games earlier this year but for 1996-2000 gold medallist Powell it is a chance to prove her tactical acumen against Annan and a giant of Australian hockey in Charlesworth.

“We’ve got a bit of a group WhatsApp chat and it’s very pro-Australian,” Powell said of the gold medal connection with Annan, Charlesworth and the athletes who took him 1996 and 2000 gold.

“Alyson has been quiet on there. So yeah, I’m sure some of the smack talk will come pretty soon. But obviously they are two really fantastic coaches. China is really lucky to have them.

“They are a fast, skilful team and he coaches that group of players pretty well. So they will be coming at us, putting pressure on us and we need to be ready”.

Brilliant Australian striker Mariah Williams was more blunt: “They both are Aussie legends, and we definitely won’t take that from them. But when we step out on that pitch, we definitely won’t be giving them any help or any favours. We’re going out there and going for blood.”

Powell had only taken over the Tokyo side two months out from the Olympics after the sacking of coach Paul Gaudoin after an internal review unveiled a toxic culture of bullying.

Alyson Annan and Katrina Powell as gold medal winning teammates at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

But Powell admits Australia didn’t handle that early goal in the Tokyo quarterfinal.

“Look, I think we weren’t in full control of our response to that situation. So we went a bit individual. We didn’t deal well with going one nil down. We had plenty of good chances. The game was in our favour. So how do you are rebound from going down and keep sticking to it? We did hit the post in that game. So the belief is still there, and now I feel like we’ve done the homework on our mindset.

“The (eight Olympic debutantes) are not carrying that baggage. So the feel in the group, the base of good culture, supporting each other, being happy to be here playing, that’s the base of good culture and that’s what this group has.”