Hockey Australia in crisis: How broken promise exposed shocking failures
One of Australia’s most respected national teams is in crisis after over 20 players and staff revealed Hockey Australia’s shocking behaviour. See the allegations here.
Hockey Australia made a solemn pledge to its best female players when the previous national women’s coach was fired for misconduct at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Investigated for allegedly exposing himself and making lewd comments to female team members, Adam Commens was sacked by Hockey Australia right before his contract was about to expire.
The message from Hockey Australia’s top brass was clear: the administrators were finally cleaning up their act after years of sordid reports about the toxic culture that had infiltrated Australia’s beloved Hockeyroos, including body shaming that led to serious eating disorders and a player overlooked for the captaincy because she was openly gay.
But four years later, dozens of women involved in the national high-performance program have accused Hockey Australia of reneging on its promise, revealing explosive and shocking claims of an elite program in complete crisis.
Past and present players, as well as former administrators, coaches and medical staff, have all contacted News Corp to lift the lid on Australian hockey’s darkest secrets following the exclusive report that one of the country’s best female players was dumped just because she asked for time off to treat her mental health issues.
In a statement to News Corp, Hockey Australia said it would not respond or comment on any of the accusations.
Most of the complaints centre around the behaviour of the new women’s head coach Paul Gaudion and high-performance director Toni Cumpston, for different reasons.
News Corp has seen more than 20 letters objecting to their management style, including one that Nicole Arrold sent to Cumpston herself, expressing her alarm at the breakdown between coaches and players shortly after she had taken an assistant’s role. It didn’t go down well and Arrold resigned suddenly, to the dismay of players because she was well liked.
Another assistant who was also respected by the players, David Guest, was fired without any player consultation, while more and more staff began to fear for their job safety in the high-performance program.
Krystle Stylianou, who was a national program adviser from 2015-17, was among the many people who complained about Cumpston. She left soon after.
“I would drive to work crying, experiencing panic attacks almost daily while at work,” Stylianou wrote.
“After finishing with HA, I was headhunted for a number of jobs in HP sport and turned them down because I had no confidence, was trying to cope with a complete mental and physical breakdown and lost all confidence in the industry I loved.
“It has taken me three years of therapy, medical intervention, to finally realise the issue did not lie with me but with management and poor leadership.”
The team’s long-serving and popular doctor Carmel Goodman also departed, as did Simone Fountain, the operations manager, and Angele Gray, the manager of the Hockeyroos.
Trish Jayallen worked with Gray when she was hired as an administrative assistant. They became friends with many of the players, who she said often confided in how frightened they were to speak out.
After Gray resigned, Jayallen decided to approach Cumpston on behalf of the players and was fired on the spot.
“It was outside the women’s toilet,” said Jayallen, who had to contact Fair Work to receive her full payout.
Most of the complaints about Gaudion relate to his apparent lack of organisation and poor communication skills.
Several complained that he would often arrive at training without a practice plan and was notorious for failing to show up to scheduled meetings or answer his phone or his emails or provide feedback to players left off the team.
In a recent interview with AAP, Gaudoin admitted to missing player meetings but denied more serious complaints.
“I missed some meetings, yeah, I’m happy to say that,” Gaudoin said. “There are various reasons for those and I don’t want to get caught up in that. But that can happen at times. I’m not perfect, but I followed up on many occasions with those players.”
One highly decorated international who wanted to know why she was unexpectedly left off the squad for the 2018 Commonwealth Games said she went eight months without being given any explanation.
Exasperated, players considered going on strike before a tournament in New Zealand in 2018 but were so fearful of the repercussions, they decided instead just to send a letter to the board of Hockey Australia.
The leadership group considered airing all the grievances after canvassing every player for their confidential opinions and being shocked by the replies.
In the letters seen by News Corp, and which were mostly written by current players, the writers complained of being “spoken to like children”, treated like “replaceable cogs in the machine” and having lost all faith and confidence in the programs, which are funded by Australian taxpayers.
One player described the culture as “worse than the previous program” that Hockey Australia vowed to clean up, writing: “This vicious cycle needs to stop.”
In the end, the players decided not to air all their gripes, so instead wrote a petition expressing their dismay at how badly the program was being run while pleading for help to fix it.
“We are reaching out to you directly as we feel that urgent action is required to prevent any further degradation in the team’s culture (particularly the relationship between players and coaches) and to also prevent any more players departing the program,” the players wrote.
“We have not taken the step of addressing the board lightly. We have met as a team and feel that continuing under the current structure is untenable and that the lack of trust and low morale have compromised the team’s chances of future and continued success.”
More than three months later, Hockey Australia president Mel Woosnam replied, saying that the board, led by CEO Matt Favier, had agreed to take steps to ensure the following areas were being addressed:
1. That player welfare and wellbeing remains a primary focus;
2. That international hockey success remains the central ambition;
3. That support services, coaching and program leadership continue to strive to be world class;
4. That a constructive and high-performing environment is re-established within the women’s program as a priority.
Or, as one current player told News Corp: “They didn’t do a bloody thing.”
The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 has only heightened the tensions. Emily Smith, Georgie Morgan and Jodie Kenny have all recently quit the captaincy. Kenny has left the sport altogether, joining a mass exodus of players turning their backs on the sport.
Morgan and Rachel Lynch, two of the best players in the world, were both left off the squad for Tokyo next year, triggering the latest revolt.
Hockey Australia has promised an investigation. Now, the players are waiting to see whether it will keep it this time.
THE ACCUSATIONS
*Widespread complaints of bullying.
*Players body-shamed and told they were overweight.
*Players developed serious eating disorders.
*Players discriminated against for being openly gay.
*Surge in players requesting mental health support.
*The national team on the verge of taking strike action.
*A complete breakdown of trust between high performance and coaches.
*Elite players, including three national captains, have quit the team.
*Staff members resigning in protest.
*Staff members fired at short notice — one of them in front of a toilet.
*Players report being fearful of speaking out.
*Players claim they were encouraged by coaches to “snitch” on their teammates.
*Board members accused of not taking complaints seriously.
TIMELINE
2016
August — Hockeyroos finish 6th at Rio Olympics, team’s worst result since women’s hockey was introduced to the Olympics in 1980.
September — Women’s national head Adam Commens sacked for ‘misconduct’ after allegedly exposing himself to players while at the Olympics.
December — Paul Gaudion appointed women’s head coach and Toni Cumpston appointed director of women’s high performance after review into program.
2017
February — Nic Arrold appointed assistant coach.
October — Georgia Nanscawen, youngest player to make 100 appearances for the Hockeyroos, quits the sport and joins AFLW.
December — Arrold quits, citing concerns about the program.
2018
April — Forward Gabi Nance quits the team.
May — Assistant coach David Guest sacked after falling out with Gaudoin.
May — Squad considers going on strike before tournament in New Zealand before deciding instead to send the board a letter of complaint outlining their concerns.
August — Board replies to letter, promising some minor changes.
November — Defender Kathryn Slattery quits.
2019
October — On the eve of Olympic qualifiers, players told they are being split into two groups, one called ‘proper Hockeyroos’, the other ‘not good enough Hockeyroos’. Players told critique the commitment of teammate to the program.
2020
March — High performance closes down because of COVID-19.
April — Players told funding will be cut back.
September — Emily Smith, Georgie Morgan and Jodie Kenny all resign the captaincy.
October — Kenny announces retirement.
October — Morgan and star goalkeeper Rachel Lynch left out of 2021 Tokyo squad.
November — Hockey Australia announces independent review into program.
The Daily Telegraph
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