2008 has been a very interesting year for Ice Hockey in Victoria and I think, one that we will remember for a long time.
At the conclusion of the 2007 winter season, we arrived at the decision that we needed to make some significant changes for our sport in order to survive over the coming years and to eventually improve the overall health of the sport at both Junior and Senior levels.
We had well and truly adapted to the fact that we only have 1 Metropolitan ice rink. We have for a few years now become very good at fitting the square peg in the round hole with our scheduling and our training times, which I must quickly congratulate all the clubs for their community minded co-operation.
However, we had slipped into an environment of ‘unbalanced and even ‘unfair’ competition. In the Junior ranks, we had dwindling numbers and across the board. We had some very strong teams and strong clubs but we also had quite a few teams and clubs struggling to compete. A 12 – 0 game result in Junior B is not good for the winning team and it’s certainly not good for the losers. In the seniors the player numbers were grossly distorted by the number of juniors playing up and the overall quality level of games had dropped away significantly. It had started to cause serious problems as the strong teams/clubs were getting stronger as migrating players searched for their best opportunities whilst weaker clubs were unable to lift themselves.
With consultation and co-operation from our clubs, our coaches and our administration, we quickly encouraged and received great ideas and suggestions for the radical changes needed to invigorate our sport. It wasn’t rocket science but it did involve major changes to the competition as we knew it and had become very accustomed to. Then as the season is about to start we throw in the Bendigo ice rink melt down just to give us an added challenge.
The Junior Restructure;
The hardest part was the dissolving of ‘Club based’ junior teams. The reality was and is that we only had the numbers to support a limited number of quality teams out of the available junior players. It was clear that we had to create an environment where we could pool the players, spread the available talent within the experienced players and the beginners and to provide improve training and playing opportunities for all players – not just those lucky enough to be in a strong team or club.
I want to thank the clubs for their co-operation and trust and the understanding of the fact that we must put the sport above the needs of individuals. The existing grades were abolished and new ones created Pee Wee (3 Teams), Bantam (4 Teams) and Junior Elite (4 Teams).
The new teams were formed with names out of our history, the Bears, the Bombers, the Pirates and the Flyers were re-born. Jerseys were organized and purchased and our dedicated coaches and Junior managers commenced the task of forming new teams, dividing the players as fairly as humanly possible.
We combined team trainings to maximize ice time and spread and share our coaches, share the load, the experience and the knowledge. After 15 rounds, what did we achieve?
I honestly believe it’s been the greatest thing for junior hockey since I first became involved in this sport. We had kids challenged each and every week. We had kids experiencing trainings like never before, we had incredibly tight games and we had kids experiencing winning and losing, some never experiencing either before!
It all resulted in the climax of a tighter finals series than just about anyone can remember, played in great spirit, good sportsmanship and extremely well patronized.
The inclusion of our female players in the Junior Elite division was another master stroke and I know they enjoyed and prospered from that move.
The Senior Restructure ;
It became clear that the one local rink was also taking its toll on the numbers of our experienced players. Like the Juniors our Senior A competition had also slipped into the haves and the have nots . An unbalanced competition that had more lack lustre games than good ones.
As with the juniors, sheer numbers dictated that we could not support a competition at the Senior A level with any level of quality with the player numbers we had and we needed to shed a team. How was the big question. Several options were considered at length including merger proposals. Credit must go to both the Saints and Sharks clubs who submitted a merger proposal and a Senior A (Premier A) team merger was born.
Once again, it wasn’t easy, but I must congratulate those that had the vision to embrace an idea and run with it.
In order to ensure a more balanced senior competition we also abolished inter club transfers and introduced a Player Draft system.
We abolished the Senior A and Senior B grades replacing them with Premier A and Premier Reserve and changed the focus of the Reserve grade to provide better player development as players move from Junior, through Reserve to Premier level.
We reintroduced a non checking senior level into the winter competition with the birth of the Premier C grade.
So what did we achieve: - The newly formed Tigers (another club name from our history) was competitive from round 1! They mixed and played competitively all season finishing second at the end of the home and away, knocking out the reigning Premiers for a Grand final slot and giving the Blackhawks great competition in some of the best A grade hockey we have seen in years. Well done!
The Premier Reserve grade benefited from having the Premier C grade winter comp. The Reserve grade competition was fierce and definitely the standard was up on previous years! It was probably fitting that the Sharks won the Premiership after a hard fought season. Well done to everyone once more!
Trophies:
With the restructure came a perfect opportunity for some other big changes. I am especially proud of the renaming of our major trophies to introduce more relevance to our recent legends – in particular our Olympic team members. The renaming of our major trophies was a little controversial at first but I’m pleased that we have achieved a positive change here but also preserved our tradition and history.
Our Senior A, “HH Kleiner” became Premier A‘s ‘Russell Jones Championship Cup’ and although not completed yet, the engraving will capture the history, previous winners and a brief on Russell, one of our favourite Olympic sons! The Reserve grade trophy is now the ‘Basil Hansen Trophy’. Junior Elite, the ‘Charles Grandy Trophy’.
Other IHV greats like Ken Wellman, Noel Derrick, Dave Cunningham, Rob Reid, Noel McLaughlan, Anders Wiking, all have trophies named after them and what a highlight it was this year to have the majority of these ‘Olympians and IHV Legends present their trophies to the proud winners. I believe this to be a great step in enhancing and making our proud history even more relevant, certainly it raised the profile, and one that made our presentations at seasons end, all that more special !
Sadly we were without one of our tireless and valued workers this year, with the passing of Otto Wolf. Otto looked after our Insurance portfolio for many many years and helped with our Government grants and funding amongst many roles. He is sadly missed. It was very appropriate to introduce a ‘Services’ award, hence the “Otto Wolf Memorial Trophy” was created for outstanding service to Ice Hockey in Victoria. Congratulations to Billy Buck for the inaugural and much deserved award win.
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Melbourne Ice
I want to congratulate the Melbourne Ice team for once again giving the AIHL finals a good shake, I’m sure the Goodall cup will be back in Victoria soon. Congratulations to the management for their ongoing commitment to improve, which they have done in all aspects of the game. I’m especially proud of our homegrown players that have achieved games at this level and I think 2008 was a great year for Ice and IHV ‘s partnership.
State Representation:
Thank you and congratulations to our Tange organizers. Once again Victoria proved to be excellent hosts and our hard workers proved that it can be done with class. The fact that we won Gold in front of our home crowd was just a great bonus. Congratulations to the Tange team, coaches and management !
Congratulations also to our victorious Ginsberg team. That was probably a little bit more of a surprise, but what a great surprise. Once again thank you to the coaches and all the helpers for making it happen.
This year also saw our Brown, DeFris, McCrae –Williamson & McKowen teams all finish with medals, We are all very proud of our State teams and the support staff. It’s just so good to be competitive year after year across the board with our neighboring states.
Victoria also had representatives in the Australian gold medal winning Senior Team, the Bronze medal winning Junior team and both the Senior In-Line and Youth teams. Congratulations to all of these players.
Thank You:
Its very hard to start thanking everyone, especially naming people, but this year more than ever before, you know who you are! Without the dedication that this sport has, without the history, the passion, the pride we could not have pulled all this off. I am very very proud to have presided over so many hard working, intelligent hockey ‘Nuts’ who gave their time without reward, without wanting anything, without a whinge (well not too many !).
I thank you all sincerely! The coaches, managers, helpers, assistants, our committee of management, our executive, our players our kids our old timers and parents. I feel in 2008 we have become a very strong Ice Hockey community and you all should be proud of your association and your commitment.
Special note however needs to go to the members of the Development Council for their continued tireless efforts in developing our future players. With the changes this year we were able to allocate more ice time to the Council which resulted in specialized training sessions and the further development of our Senior Player development council activities.
For 2009, we need to encourage and help our Bendigo Raiders rebuild. We do need to revisit our senior competition and continue to work at its improvement and we have a revamped Junior competition that we can now work hard and grow with. We can start to get excited about the Docklands twin ice rinks that now are ‘approved ‘ with building due to commence.
We can especially start to get excited that we go into 2009 our centennial year with an infrastructure, a ‘ state of mind ‘ that is fantastic for Ice Hockey in this state, proof that we can meet any challenge with vigor that we will prosper.
Andrew McDowell
President
Ice Hockey Victoria
