Category: HERO’S

Posts and updates from particularly amazing people.

Lukas Graser OBO Profile

Austrian mens goalkeeper Lukas Graser’s OBO profile.

What club you play for: AHTC Wien

What Country you play for: Austria

Great achievements: Indoor: Winner of the U21 B-Pool Indoor European Championships 2005, 6th Place at the Indoor World Championship 2007 in Vienna / Austria, 3rd Place at the European Championships Indoor Pool A in Ekaterinburg / Russia, Austrian National Champion 2002, 2007, 2008, 2009; 2nd place at the European Championships B Pool in Lissabon / Portugal and promoted to the A Pool 2007, Euro Hockey Championship A Pool in Amsterdam 2009, Participation at many European Cups with my club. Playing in the first German Bundesliga for the HTC Stuttgarter Kickers in 2007.

List of gear you use: OBO Robo Hi Rebound Kickers and Legguards, OBO Pants, OBO Tackle Box, OBO Chestguard, OBO HI Rebound Gloves, OBO Fatboy, OBO Carbon Helmet

Best goalie memory: Saving 3 penalties during the penalty shootout in the half final at the European Championships B Pool in Lissabon / Portugal 2007 and through that getting promoted to the A Pool in Amsterdam / Nederlands 2009!!!

How often do you train: Club practice 2 times a week, national team practice 1 a week, gym and athletic every hockey free day 🙂

International caps: approximately 32

International debut: against Scotland 2003

Any secret tips: train hard, never give up, buy OBO and everything`s going to work out 😉

Goals in life: having a job, that makes me happy, staying healthy, being able to play hockey for a long long time.

Toni Cronk OBO Profile

Australian womens goalkeeper Toni Cronk’s OBO profile

What club you play for: South Perth
What Country you play for: Australia
Great achievements: Commonwealth Gold in Melbourne 2006
List of gear you use: Robo Hi-Rebound legs and kickers, Hi-control RHP, Hi Rebound LHP, ROBO FG Splat helmet,  skinny thing stick and ROBO BA.
Best goalie memory: every time I play for my country, it brings another special memory
How often do you train: 6 days a week
International caps: 65
International debut: October 2001 versus New Zealand in Melbourne
Any secret tips: Just be where the ball is…
Goals in life: Own several of my own business’s

Here is picture from the 09 Champion Trophy with my custom Aussie pads:

Kookaburras Update

It has been a busy year for the Australian Hockey Team and it is now almost time for the biggest test of 2009 – the Champions Trophy in Melbourne. Since Ric Charlesworth took over as coach at the start of the year the Kookaburras have played 31 tests, with 23 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses. During this time 31 players have pulled on the green and gold shirt, including 14 debutants. Ric is trying to build a deep squad and this means that competition will be very intense for the final 18 that head to Champions.

Since my last post at the end of our European Tour, the team won a 3 Nations / 4 Team tournament against Malaysia, Canada and Australia A in Canberra. After that we were off to Invercargill for the all-important Oceania Cup and World Cup Qualifiers against New Zealand and Samoa. The first game was a 26-0 win against a very inexperienced but enthusiastic Samoan team, a game that will remain in my memory for that fact that neither myself nor fellow goalkeeper Nathan Burgers were in the 16 that played! Defenders Kiel Brown and Luke Doerner played a half each in the net for the first time and were certainly talking up the fact that they kept a clean sheet afterwards. Burgers and I resumed our spots in the two games against NZ, and it was a great relief when we won the final 3-1 to take our place in next year’s World Cup. I’ve attached a photo of the team after the game – I’m the one wearing the beanie (it was pretty cold in Invercargill, although none of the other boys seem to be feeling it).

More recently we took a relatively inexperienced side to KL for a 5 Test series against Malaysia, who are themselves preparing to head to Invercargill to try and win a World Cup spot ahead of New Zealand. We won the series 3-0 with two draws, and it was great to see three new faces make their mark, namely Jono Charlesworth, Matt Swann and Matt Gohdes (see photo attached). Jono is a team mate in the WA Thundersticks side and Gohdesy plays in my club team, Hale, so it was good to play a test match with both of them. Over the next couple of weeks there are three intra-squad trial games that will be the playing group’s last chance to impress selectors before the team is named for Melbourne on November 10. For the keepers it’s a case of 3 doesn’t go into 2, so Burgers, George Bazeley and I will be doing our best to earn selection in the upcoming games.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon with some good selection news in my next post!

Cheers,
Rossco

Oceania Cup Final

So it looks like we are taking the long road to qualify for the world cup….
We started the match with one of the strongest NZ line ups seen so far this year. I am glad I had a good warm up as right from the first whistle the Aussies had us under the pump. Against the run of play Nick Wilson opened the scoring for NZ. Unfortunately the lead was short lived with the aussies forcing a pc a couple of minutes later and after smothering the initial flick Grant Shubert latched on to the rebound placing it high in the goal from close range.

The game continued to be a close contest as we defended our arses off. On the stroke of half time we conceded another pc. This time the initial flick was heading low to my glove side, as I moved to save the shot a Aussie striker dived in for a deflection. Close to unstoppable from that range so we went in to the break 2-1 down.

Again the second half was a hard fought affair, we were awarded a pc with 2 minutes left on the clock but it was not to be with Hayden Shaw missing the goal. On full time the Aussies were awarded another pc, with 10 attacking players in the circle they were li jng up to punish the rebound from the first up flick. So it was 3-1 in the end. I can report the 3rd half was enjoyable both the nz and aussies sharing a few drinks.

Now we return to Invercargill in November for the next qualifier but next up is the NZ national league. I will be looking to lift the sheild for a 5th time with the Wellington team.

Over And Out,

Kyle

Blacksticks v Malaysia Test Result

Finally in to the 5th and final test of our series against Malaysia. We now find ourselves in Taupo where the great weather has finally turned to rain. The locals really got behind the team and the test match organising a great dinner with some kids from the region and then having a great turnout for the match.

We started the match well and opened the scoring then followed it up with a second before half time. Going in to the break I guess you could say we were happy with how the game was going – of course the second half was a totally different encounter. The Malaysians stepped up their game and we made a few errors to help their cause. They managed to score from a break away and threatened many times. Thankfully we managed to grind out the win. 2-1 final score.

The 5 game test series ended;

Blacksticks holding 3 wins and 2 draws.

Now we focus on the Oceania Cup against Samoa oh and the Aussies 😉

Over and out

Kyle Pontifex

Blacksticks v Malaysia Test Update

So on to game 3 against Malaysia: After a disappointing 2nd test ending in a 1-1 draw we moved on from the lovely Palmerston North (the home of OBO) to Napier.

The blacksticks played well as a team and dominated the match, we were rewarded with a nice goal to Simon Child. One of the Malaysian’s strengths is their ability to conter attack at speed and true to form they had a few chances close to half time.

Keeping my defence in good position and having the confidence to wait for the ball to arrive we kept the Malaysian’s scoreless going on to the break. The second half brought some more challanges as we had a number of PC’s to defend, the most difficult of these was a flick that took a deflection off the first runner. Using the large blocking surface of the RHP I managed to smother the deflection. Hayden Shaw flicked one in at the other end and then the local boy Shea McAleese got on the end of a backhand cross from Nick Haig to deflect our third goal of the match.Final Score 3-0.

Our next match is tomorrow and the we finish up the series on Sunday in Taupo. Get along if you are in the area!!

Over and out Kyle Pontifex

Brand Use At The Womens Champions Trophy 09

Here is a table showing the goalkeepers from the women’s champions trophy and what kit brand they used.

Here are some interesting table stats from the recent women’s champions trophy in Sydney.

Tournament Position

Country

Goalkeeper

Shirt No.

Age

Caps

Brand Used

1

Argentina

Belen SUCCI

1

23

22

OBO

1

Argentina

Maria Laura ALADRO

13

26

17

OBO

2

Australia

Toni CRONK

1

29

61

OBO

2

Australia

Rachael LYNCH

27

23

21

OBO

3

Netherlands

Floortje ENGELS

1

27

12

OBO

3

Netherlands

Inge VERMEULEN

20

24

4

TK

4

Germany

Yvonne FRANK

1

29

79

TK

4

Germany

Barbara VOGEL

17

29

37

OBO

5

China

Yimeng ZHANG

16

25

68

OBO

5

China

Dongxiao LI

30

21

0

OBO

6

England

Beth STORRY

1

31

59

Monarch

6

England

Becky DUGGAN

24

26

26

Mercian

In percentage terms it equates to these figures;

Brand

Goalkeepers (12)

Total %
OBO 8 66.6
TK 2 16.6
Mercian 1 8.3
Monarch 1 8.3

OBO Goalkeepers are amazing people!

You can also check out these posts on brand use here; brand use.

Ross Meadows OBO Profile

We welcome Ross Meadows to OBO’s list of particularly amazing people.

Ross plays his club hockey for Hale Hockey Club in Western Australia and captains the SmokeFree WA Thundersticks in the Australian Hockey League.

Having recently received the call up to the Kookaburras squad for the 2009 season, Ross has the ideal opportunity to impress Australian coach Ric Charlesworth ahead of the World Cup Qualifiers in August and the 2009 Champions Trophy in Melbourne during November/ December.

What club you play for:
– Hale Hockey Club, Western Australia
– SmokeFree WA Thundersticks (Captain)
What Country you play for: Australia
Great achievements:
– Australian Debut v Holland 2008
– AHL Championships 2008 & 2009
List of gear you use: OBO ROBO Hi Rebound pads, kickers, LHP, Hi control RHP, bodi arma, smarty pants and the all important groin guard
Best goalie memory: Being selected to play for Australia
How often do you train: Every week day
International caps: 15 (as of November 2009)
International debut: January 2008 v Holland in Busselton, WA
Any secret tips: Never dwell on the goal that you just conceded – you don’t know when the
next shot is coming
Goals in life: Represent Australia as often as possible and enjoy my hockey

Champions Trophy

So close! The 2009 Samsung Champions trophy is over and we are going home with silver. In the most intense game of the tournament the Hockeyroos went down to Argentina in strokes after staying at 0-0 after full time then extra time. It was a battle of the midfields with neither team having many good scoring opportunities. Luciana Aymar who sealed the deal for the Argies by scoring the final stroke. It was tough watching them sing and dance around but we all left feeling very proud of our performance. It was another step forward for us and so we will know head back home to train for the World Cup qualifiers in NZ in August

Cheers,

Rach