Tasmanian hockey superstar Eddie Ockenden notches up 350 games for the Kookaburras

There are not many players in Australia, or even the world, who can match the record of Tassie Hockey superstar Eddie Ockenden.

Eddie Ockenden. Hockey Australia Team. Picture: DANIEL CARSON dcimges.org

WHEN Eddie Ockenden won his first senior club premiership with North-West Graduates he was thrilled to be presented with his medallion.

Ockenden couldn’t bring himself to take the medal off for some weeks, taking it to school under his uniform and even playing the following week’s state final with it still around his neck.

It has always been team success that has driven one of Tasmania’s finest ever sporting exports, more than many individual accolades that have come his way.

The Kookaburras co-captain will tonight become just the second Australian hockey player to notch 350 international matches when Australia meet Germany in a crucial Pro League encounter.

The 32-year-old will move 15 matches shy of record holder Jamie Dwyer, a mark he will pass early next year ahead of his fourth Olympic Games.

Ockenden’s under-12 coach Marcus Richardson recalls coaching a talented group where Ockenden’s attitude, commitment and skill stood out from the beginning.

“His application to each training session and every game was something else, always eager to learn, listen and applied every instruction given to him and always performed to his full potential,” Richardson said.

Eddie Ockenden in the Sydney Olympic Hockey Stadium Oceania Cup 2017 Final Australia v New Zealand Picture: GRANT TREEBY

Ockenden would later burst into senior club hockey as a sixteen-year-old for North-West Graduates, completely bypassing the U/18 and Reserve grades.

“I can recall the conversation we had where we all agreed he was a future Kookaburra, it was only a matter of time,” Richardson added.

Then came his national league debut in Hobart during 2006, where the eighteen-year olds talents helped propel the Tassie Tigers to a silver medal and his subsequent naming in the Kookaburra’s side.

“They don’t name Australian teams like this now, but when his name was announced to a packed stadium, the cheer that he received was tremendous. He was completely overwhelmed,” mum Angela recalls fondly.

After making his debut in 2006, Ockenden became a sensation at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and earning the World Young Player of the Year award.

A four-time World All Stars team member, two-time Kookaburras Player of the Year and a FIH Player of the Year nominee, Ockenden’s individual awards are surpassed only by his team success.

Three Olympics, two World Cup wins, seven Champions Trophy titles and a historic national title with the Tassie Tigers against all odds are just some of his crowning achievements.

“An Olympic Gold is the only medal he doesn’t have so I am sure that is what he craves,” Angela remarks.

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The father-of-two himself isn’t putting a deadline on his career, with Tokyo 2020 firmly in his sights and a recent move into defence once again reinventing Australia’s most versatile and durable player.

“Winning the Olympics is difficult. It takes your absolute best and has proven to be just out of reach so far,” Ockenden acknowledges.

“Now I’m playing down back I’m aiming to play the best I ever have, and I think I have played well but I’m still trying to improve and make a difference.”

But the inside word from mum Angela is he may want to give the World Cup and Commonwealth Games another crack in 2022.

“He could easily have another four years,” she says.

That could put an unbelievable fifth Olympic campaign in 2024 on his radar and would place Ockenden on pace for a world breaking 500 games, but for now he’s focused on bringing more team success to Australian hockey fans.

MORE ON EDDIE OCKENDEN

Age: 32

GAMES: 349

GOALS: 70

DEBUT: 19/6/2006

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS

■Olympics x 3 (2 bronze medals)

■World Cups x 3 (2 gold, 1 bronze)

■Commonwealth Games

x 3 (3 gold)

■Champions Trophy x 9

(7 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)

■Oceania Cups x 6 (6 gold)

■World League x 1 (1 gold)