Eight Tasmanians Selected in 2022 Australian Futures Squad

Tasmania added eight more names to the list of potential future Australian International hockey representatives with the announcement of the Men’s and Women’s Hockey Australia Futures Squad lists for 2022.

Women Taylor Brooks, Isabelle Kruimink, Madison Clark, and Emily Rockefeller were selected in the squad, as well as Men Max Johnstone, Lachlan Rogers, Magnus McCausland, and Ruben Hoey.
The selections come after a successful 2022 National Under 18 Championships in Cairns, QLD earlier this April, where the Tasmanian Under 18 Women won the Bronze medal and the Under 18 Men finished 8th (out of 12).

The Futures Squad is a 12-month program for the next crop of young athletes entering into the National Pathway and gives them help in developing their game in preparation for joining the National squads (Hockeyroos and Kookaburras) in the following years. It includes a training camp in Canberra in October.

Hockey Tasmania CEO Damian Smith said this was a fantastic outcome for Tasmanian Hockey and a ringing endorsement of the work done by the Under 18 coaches Susan Brooks, Ilene Carr, Trent Sproule, and Tim Strapp, and the work of the Tassie Tigers Academy (established in 2020) and Academy Head Coach Luke Doerner.

“There has been a lot of hard work and effort in the last couple of years put towards transforming the way we develop our junior hockey talent in Tasmania, especially the development of our junior women. We’re now starting to see these efforts pay off, with a significant increase in the number of junior athletes selected in the Futures squad,” Smith said.

“Especially pleasing is the selection of four women into the 2022 squad, which is more than we’ve had for the previous five years combined, and they’ll join Maddison Brooks and Evelyn Dalton who were recently elevated into the U21 Australian Women’s squad as a crop of Tasmanian athletes on the pathway to representing their country at senior level.

“We continue to be excited about the prospects of our junior men, where we have had plenty of success – most recently with Eddie Ockenden and Josh Beltz winning Silver at the Tokyo Olympics - and these four selected are all talented players who have bright futures.”

Tassie Tigers Academy Head Coach Luke Doerner said that this result was great for Tasmanian hockey and a testament to the approach of the last couple of years of giving young athletes opportunities for more time on the pitch to train in a higher quality environment against their peers at a higher level.

“The Academy philosophy is to create opportunities for players to develop their individual skill in a competitive environment, focussing on the essential skills and giving athletes the time to develop and work on those skills,” Doerner said.

“The good thing is that there are a number of other athletes in those state teams and in the academy who are very close to those selected [in the Futures Squad], and if they continue their hard work they can also get identified.

“With the Academy, Hockey Tasmania, the State team coaches, and linking up with the TIS, there is now a really solid pathway for these athletes to develop and earn national selection from within our Tasmanian hockey environment.

“It was most pleasing for Madi Clark to be identified from the North-West region. It’s proof that they can operate and develop at that high level, perform well at national championships, and get selected for these squads.

“It shows that the Satellite Academy program operating up in the North and North-West is working, and that there is nothing stopping kids from that region being identified,” Dorner said.