Off to China

Heading to Beijing tomorrow! We are playing in a small tournament called the Good luck Beijing games. It is a practice run for Beijing to get everything organised for the 2008 Olympics. We are playing on the Olympic playing surface and using all the facilities so its very exciting. Other teams are Malaysia, Pakistan and of course China.
As i said, leaving tomorrow so check this site for news on our games!

Spain!

We finished off an amazing tour of Europe with out best 3 games against Spain. Winning all 3, and along the way celebrating Wellsys 200th game! an amazing achievement and one that was recognised by everyone whilst we were overseas. Wellsy got the honour of captain the milestone game and I am sure it will be a memorable one for him as we managed to get a 2 - 1 win. Our first game was a little more comfortable with a 4 - 0 win while in the last game we finished off the tour with another 4 - 1 win. David Guest bagged a hat-trick of drag flicks to get us over the line!
Spain was probably my favourite place of the tour. we got a day off in between games to go exploring. Some of us hired cars and navigated ourselves around some of Spains' beaches and other places. Most notably, Mundaka and San Sebastion. Both amazing places and the day was very enjoyable. Sometimes it is a good idea on tour to have a day completely away from hockey and the hotel to make sure we stay refreshed on such a long tour with so much hockey.
Back in Perth briefly for a few weeks training before we head off to Beijing, China for a 2 week tour!
please email www.whoiseddieo@netspace.net.au for any further questions. thanks

German leg

Hi all. Arrived in spain yesterday after a week in Germany. Were in a place called Bilbao, a very cool place so far. We had some mixed results coming out of Germany with an early 4 - 0 win in the first game followed by 2 close losses where we probably didn´t hit our straps, it was a a bit disappointing but we now know where we need to improve for the Spanish leg. Fellow Tasmanian David Guest scored two penalty corner goals which was excellent. We stayed in Nuremburg in Germany which was a cool place. A really old city and we did a tour of a castle that was over 1000 years old. It was pretty awesome. Seeing some amazing places as we travel across Europe. Not long to go now though. Log on to www.hockey.org.au for any latest results. Our next game is Wednesday night (early thurs Aus time).

We've payed two games

hello from belgium. just finished 2 games this weekend in not so sunny belgium.
it is supposed to be summer but has rained almost everyday, sounds like tassie!
anyway, it was a successful 2 games for the kookaburras! In game 1 we struggled early going 3 - 1 down at half time before fighting back late in the second half to score the winning goal with 10 seconds left. the score 4 - 3. a very exciting game and showed the kookaburras fighting spirit. game 2 was a little bit of a better perforance with matthew wells captaining the team to a 5 - 1 victory.
before the weekend we trained and also had half a day off to see a bit more of belgium. we took a bus to Brugge which is a very nice city biult on and around a number of canals and rivers. (look it up, its a wonderful place).
tomorrow we travel by bus across the border to germany where we play 3 games.
please email with any questions and more information, as well as some tips and ideas if you like!
log on to www.hockey.org for full match reports

pre european tour

Hi everyone.
just thought i would write i quick message before heading off to europe tomorrow (sunday 1st july). The flight will take about 18 hours all up with a stop over in singapore. We never look forward to the travelling part of a tour but unfortunately it's just part of it.
First stop is Belgium for 2 games agasint their national side, then to germany for 3 games and finally to spain for a further 3 games. Very exciting times ahead for the next 3 weeks. I look forward to updating my blog as we tour around europe. please email with any questions you might have. I look forward to hearing from you.
EddieO

June 18 EddieO is back in Perth Western Aust - doing exams and training hard to head off with the Australian team.

Eddie Ockenden started hockey at Mt Stuart Primary School in Hobart in Grade 2 - check out his picture from the team photo.