TASMANIA’S historic maiden Australian Hockey League title last year could be the first of many according to the state’s Olympic gold medallist Matthew Wells.
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The popular veteran, whose career has come full circle as he helps coach the national team at the Hobart venue where he learned the game and made his Kookaburras debut, believes the continued emergence of international-standard Tasmanian players make the Tigers among the favourites for another national crown.
‘‘It was no fluke,’’ Wells said of his home state’s dramatic AHL victory.
‘‘I can see them defending the title no trouble at all. They are only going to get stronger.’’
Now based in Brisbane, Wells coaches the Queensland hockey team but said being reunited with his Tasmanian Institute of Sport equivalent and former mentor Andrew McDonald had helped him realise how dangerous his home state will be when this year’s national tournament is held in Darwin in September.
‘‘They are a threat to all the other teams. Certainly as coach of Queensland I look at them as a big threat. They are the team everybody is taking seriously.
‘‘There’s always someone stepping up in Tassie. It’s amazing the numbers coming out of the state and that is a credit to Macca and the TIS.
‘‘In the past there might have been one or two of us at a time but now you have four or five Tasmanians in the national program and you only have to look at the success of last year’s AHL and the under-18s this year to see how well Tasmanian hockey is going.
‘‘And I don’t see them dropping off, just getting stronger.’’
Wells was assisting McDonald as coach of Australia A as the Kookaburras fielded two teams in the week-long four-nation tournament, including Tim Deavin and Nick Budgeon, of Launceston, and Hobart quartet Eddie Ockenden, Jeremy Edwards, Kurt Mackey and Josh Beltz.
All are bidding to represent the world’s top-ranked nation at next year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Ockenden already owns bronze medals from 2008 and 2012, the latter alongside Deavin, while Wells was a member of gold medal triumph in Athens in 2004.
A day after turning 37, Wells said he was thrilled to be back at a venue he reckons he first graced as a two-year-old and where he made his international debut against the Netherlands in 1998.
‘‘It’s always nice to get home. It’s the first time I’ve coached with Macca and I’ve enjoyed rekindling that relationship and bringing back some old school stuff.’’
Although Beltz is still recovering from hip surgery, Budgeon and Mackey featured in the Australia A side that defeated Pakistan 3-1 before Ockenden, Edwards and Deavin helped the Kookaburras to a 7-0 victory over Korea.