The Ice Hockey ACT Board are seeking expressions of interest from suitable Head Coach and Manager candidates to take the Ice Hockey ACT team to the IHA Brown Tournament for males 17+. The ACT looks to return to the tournament after several years due to COVID and intends on playing with a squad that can now include AIHL players with citizenship or permanent residency. To date a strong interest has been shown by prospective players that is still open to additional players.
Both roles are detailed below and applications close at midnight on Wednesday 20th September. To apply, email both President (Adrian Miller) and Player Development Director (Tim Cox) on president@ihact.org.au and player.development@ihact.org.au respectively stating the role you are interested in and relevant experience you have for the role requirements below.
If you have any questions before committing, please feel free to email or directly message either Adrian or Tim.
When 9th – 12th November 2023
Where Newcastle – Hunter Ice Sports Stadium
Cost Minimal. Contribution to team meals, travel and accommodation will be covered by Association. Some personal meals required when travelling.
Head Coach
Pre-Tournament:
Selection of team roster and execution of training sessions as arranged in conjunction with Player Development Director to elicit most economical and successful performance of the team. Selection of any assistant coaches as desired. Setting of expectations with players in regards to likely ice time in conjunction with development aspirations for each player. Communicating with Player Development Director for anticipated performance of the team with players available.
During Tournament:
Running of the ACT team to be as competitive as possible whilst remaining consistent with player expectations. Manage any player conflicts or ambitions professionally to produce a realistic and positive outcome. Ability to sit or send players home for disciplinary reasons. Foster a positive and competitive attitude to performance but not at a win at all costs mentality.
Post Tournament:
Participation in post tournament debrief with Player Development Director to further progress IHACT’s long term participation and performance at the Brown Tournament and by extension all other younger age tournament teams.
Team Manager
Pre-Tournament:
Organise and liaise with the IHACT Board to organise and manage:
Travel
Accommodation
Meals
Uniforms
During Tournament:
Assist coach in preparations for games
Organise any shopping and arrangements for food preparation
Attend any required tournament meetings
Post Tournament:
Same as per the Head Coach, to provide a debrief of improvements that could be made to the tournament preparation for future years.
The Ice Hockey ACT board has begun work on looking into updating the design and colours of the uniforms to be worn by representative teams in national tournaments. Two aspects should be looked at when re-designing the ACT uniform, those of colour pallette and iconography. Ice Hockey ACT teams have closely used the same colour scheme as the official ACT Government recommended colours. With an update of the colours, design and emblem it is aimed to reinvigorate the Territory identity at national events.
Colours
Efficiently, the colour scheme that IHACT should consider adopting as their own is that of the NHL team St Louis Blues if a cheaper method to have ice hockey apparel produced were available. Comparatively the colours are very similar with the trio of Yellow-White-Blue being within a few values in the RGB scheme. The Blues also make use of a Navy Blue which approximately lines up with generic navy blue ice hockey pants. Option of cover pants to handle different pant colours will produce a more coherent image for state teams.
ACT Colours
St Louis Blues
Australian Capital Territory flag for colour reference.
Emblem
Currently Ice Hockey ACT representative teams bear no distinct motif, of animal, plant, or noun. Many other states have an emblem on their jerseys, such as Western Australia and South Australia, giving a more unique association to their home state. Iconography on the front of jerseys doesn’t have to exclusively be an animal motif, with the Victorian “Big V” an iconic image in majority of sports which Victoria compete in nationally.
The current ACT flag has two Swans and a heraldic castle alongside the Southern Cross. As Western Australia already uses the Black Swan for their state jerseys, using this animal as a motif would appear to be a copycat and unoriginal, plus also the Swan is not the official animal of the ACT. The ACT Government in November 2018 elected to have the Southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby as the official mammal emblem and in 1997 elected the Gang-gang Cockatoo to be the bird emblem of the Territory. The floral emblem for the ACT is the Royal Bluebell. The ACT also has no known castles with a drawbridge so the inclusion of a castle seems odd.
Suggestions below are for inducing discussion and are not to be a limited set of choices for the uniform design refresh but are to provide a starting point. The only real requirement for an emblem and iconography is to have something which is at least related to the Australian Capital Territory and also preferably as a unique item to the ACT. If possible, not replicating something as a clear copy of another entity, which if done shows more of a subservient identity than an own identity.
Official Emblems
Gang-Gang Cockatoo
Although the ACT emblem, the bird itself is not peculiar or strongly related to the ACT for it’s habitat. The species lives from around Newcastle in the mid north coast down to Victoria, so other than an official status, the bird really isn’t strongly unique to the ACT. https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10975
Official flower emblem of the ACT which has a habitat closely
Unofficial Emblems
Broad Toothed Rat
An endangered species in the ACT and Kosciuszko region is the Broad Toothed Rat. The idea of using the name “Rats” would have mixed feelings, some kids might find it hilarious and a great name, others might think of introduced black rats which are associated with negative images. The Broad Toothed Rat however is an Australian native animal which lives in higher altitudes along the ACT / Kosciuszko region.
Another animal with significance to the ACT are Bettongs which are affectionately known as the “rat kangaroo”. These animals are also endangered and have a breeding program in the ACT out at Mulligan’s Flat. The Bettongs are small, agile and highly important to the ecosystem. https://www.mulligansflat.org.au/eastern-bettong
Nouns
ACT Capitals
Not to be confused with the Canberra Capitals WNBL team, the use of “Capitals” is something unique to the ACT being the capital state of Australia, and has been used previously with the Washington Capitals in the NHL. To be perfectly correct the title would have to be “Canberra Capitals” as Canberra is the capital of Australia, not the Territory itself. Including these to the uniform needs the name to be used in conjunction, whereas the use of an animal or plant can be left as a logo on the front of the jersey.
Another possibility is the use of Senators, in reference to the upper house. This is also an identifiable noun in ice hockey as the Ottawa Senators have a notoriety amongst fans. Cryptically the name of “Territory Senators” refers to a 1975 High Court case where the ACT and NT were challenged on constitutional validity to be represented in parliament. The case is representative of small states being given an equal right of representation in parliament and is a good metaphor for the small geography but equality arguments around the ACT. The obvious clash here is with the OiHAN team “Senators” who play in over age events nationally and currently in C grade. This one should be dismissed on being a replica of a team already operating from the ACT.
Logistics
To reduce costs to players, the purchasing a full uniform each year would not be required. An ACT representative jersey will be required to be purchased, however the socks and cover pants can be kept in stock by Ice Hockey ACT. Therefore to play without minimal cost to representative players, a pool of uniform spares (socks and coverpants) should be held by the association the same as how the Ice Caps uniforms are kept together for the juniors attending non national tournaments. Prior to a tournament the players are only required to purchase a jersey.
Service Life
To assist with a consistent image at national tournaments, the IHACT jersey design should be kept for around 5 years at minimum. For the cost of investment on the socks and cover pants along with the fact a timeless design is, timeless, it would be advisable to have one uniform design in service for ten plus years. The current uniform design has been in service for at least 15 years so this is not a new concept. Also from year to year a player can keep their jersey and borrow socks + cover pants for a tournament. There is also the option to purchase helmets in a specific colour for the state representative teams, this is optimistic though.
Design
Invariably the best designed uniforms can be found where the big money leagues are, namely the NHL or KHL. The NHL and KHL are a good source of inspiration due to no large advertisements on the uniforms and a consistent modern style between teams with features respecting the history and geography of the place they represent. Some suggestions for colour similar to the ACT are again St Louis Blues.
Please forward your thoughts through to anyone on the board.
It has been 12 years since the last Australian Women’s National Championship was played and with the resumption of the tournament the ACT Women’s team was one of six teams that travelled to Melbourne to play for National Championship. The tournament was open to players 15+ years old and featured many of the best women’s players in Australia, including National Team players, 2022 U18 National Team players and many AWIHL players. As you can imagine, and many of you saw on the live stream, the standard of play was very high. With the support of IHACT the 17 players selected to represent ACT worked hard to get ready for the tournament with several training sessions and three exhibition games. (Thank-you Vikings and Senators)
ACT started the tournament with an exciting game vs NSW and after 3 periods with the score 2 – 2 we headed to overtime. A fast-paced overtime with chances to score generated by both teams resulted but the score remained tied, and the game was settled with a shootout. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result were hoping for and NSW took the win and the extra point. In the end that extra point had a huge effect on the final standings to determine who would play for the medals.
ACT v SA
ACT next played a very strong and eventual 2022 National Champions Victoria and although ACT eventually lost the game 5 – 0 our team gave a very good account of themselves and pushed Victoria right to the end. Our next game was against Western Australia in a game that could have gone either way but in the end, WA came away with the win.
The team now had to win it’s last two games to make the medal round and in an early morning start ACT faced South Australia and with a solid effort came away with the win. ACT would play Queensland next, needing a win to advance to the medal round. As it turned out the extra point NSW took by winning the shoot out in ACT’s first game meant that if ACT beat Queensland ACT would finish 3rd, ahead of Queensland, and eliminate NSW from the medal round.
ACT’s game against Queensland was an outstanding game with a quick pace, physical play, strong goal tending and two teams that were playing for positioning in the medal round. ACT desperate to finish third and qualify, or be eliminated, and Queensland wanting that third spot so they wouldn’t have to face an undefeated Victoria team in the first game of the medal round. The game was very close and came down to the wire with Queensland taking the win to finish third in round robin play.
Queensland went on to take home the silver medal after losing to Victoria in the finals and after just squeaking into the medal round NSW took home the bronze medal.
The National Women’s Championships was everything you would expect to see when the best players in the country compete against each other. The hockey was a very high quality and a tribute to just how good women’s hockey is in Australia. The players that represented ACT in Melbourne showed that we can compete on a national stage, coming together as a team to play an exciting brand of hockey and demonstrating just how far women’s hockey has come in ACT. Every person on the Women’s team deserves to be congratulated for the role they played on the ACT team, and the how they represented IHACT on and off the ice. With the quality of players, we have on this team and others playing in the ACT in the Women’s League, Sr. C and Sr. B the future of Women’s Hockey in ACT is very bright.
Last weekend was a big weekend for players and coaches from the ACT on the national stage. Ice Hockey ACT was represented by present and past members in both Sydney and Melbourne.
In Sydney the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey League kicked off with a Saturday match between the Sydney Sirens Ice Hockey Team taking on the Brisbane Lightning out at Macquarie. Ebony Brunt, Lucy York, and Eiland Kenyon suited up for the Sirens in their strong win over the Lightning. Saturday was a milestone day for Lucy when she scored her first goal in the AWIHL. Well done and the more ACT females in the AWIHL the better.
Down south in Melbourne at the O’Brien Group Arena saw the resumption of the Trans Tasman series post COVID. Organised by Ice Hockey Australia, the matches are against our mates from across the ditch, Ice Hockey New Zealand, and this year’s edition had many present and past ACT people on deck. Jordon Brunt and Mike Giorgi played at least two games each over the long weekend for the Roos with Jordon scoring his first goal as a men’s Mighty Roo player. Mike scored his first goal as well but no photographic evidence exists.
Ice Hockey ACT was also represented on the bench with the majority of coaching and management staff being current or past IHACT coaches. Matti Luoma (Head Coach), Mark Rummukainen (Assistant Coach), Donald McDonald (Goaltending Coach), and Darryl Day (Gear Manager) on the bench. The ACT has had and continues to have exposure to excellent coaches which we are looking to utilise more in our junior program to produce more Jordon’s and Lucy’s et al.
IHACT is proud as punch for all of you and looks forward to seeing you all more on the national and international stage.
Photos Credits: Sydney Sirens & Ice Hockey Australia
Ebony Brunt and Dilli Kenyon departed Canberra today bound for the 2019 IIHF World Championships in Jaca, Spain, as members of the Australian U18 Womens team. The tournament will be played from the 12th until the 18th of January 2019. We wish them the bet of luck for the trip and tournament.
Brunt and Kenyon at Canberra Airport
Brunt and Kenyon with coach Tamara Jones at Canberra Airport
