Hockeyroos Gain Hope
The Hockeyroos hopes of winning the inaugural Lanco International Super Series tournament have been strengthened by the return of former Hockeyroos midfielder Hope Munro to international hockey.
29 year oldAIS-WAIS scholarship holder Munro retired from international hockey on the eve of the 2010 World Cup in order to spend more time with her young family and two young daughters.
With Adam Commens taking over as coach of the Hockeyroos at the beginning of the year, Munro has slowly been reintroduced into the Hockeyroos squad and attendedthe team’s week long selection camp last week in Melbourne.
Her selection in the Lanco International Super Series squad will bolster the team’s chances of winning the tournament with the Hockeyroos selecting a very strong squad including the likes of captain Madonna Blyth, former world young player of the year Casey Eastham and world class AIS-WAIS defender Kobie McGurk.
Hockeyroos coach Adam Commens said that while Munro’s return to the team for these matches was encouraging, there still remained a lot of hard work to be done before Munro put herself in a position to push for a spot in the team for the 2012 London Olympics.
“Hope is obviously a very talented player and it will be great to see her represent the team again. But beyond these tournaments there is still a lot of work to do and there may be circumstances outside of hockey that restrict whether she can come back into the squad full time. But regardless, it is encouraging to see her involved in the team again,” said Commens.
“We have picked what we think is a very good side for the tournament. The new rule changes will be very interesting so we have picked a side with a lot of attacking players and I think the likes of Kellie White, Emily Smith and Ashleigh Nelson will really relish the open space and scoring opportunities,” said Commens.
The Lanco International Super Seriesis a newly created tournament, which has a revolutionary new format and new rules to make the game faster and more exciting than ever before!
The tournament has reduced the number of players on the pitch from 11 to 9. Reducing the amount of players on each team means more space for the players to show off their amazing skills. It also means for the attacking team there is less opponents to get around, creating more scoring opportunities!
The tournament will also see an increase in the size of the goals by one metre with games reduced to 15 minute halves and more leniencies on foot violations outside the circle, it will be non-stop action from beginning to end.
The Hockeyroos will take on India and Malaysia at the tournament, while the Kookaburras will also compete against India, New Zealand and Pakistan.
Played at the Perth Hockey Stadium from October 20-23 – it will be hockey like you’ve never seen before.
-Hockey Australia
