Chair and Board Update – December 2024

To all the incredible members of our Auckland community, the Auckland Hockey Board would like to wish you all a restful break and a chance to celebrate and spend time with your families, however you choose to do it! In the spirit of the season and to commemorate a great year at Auckland Hockey, we’d like to thank you all for you time and commitment to the running, understanding and development of our Association. To the Presidents and Committee Members at our wonderful clubs, we want to thank you all for the feedback you’ve given to encourage us, as well as challenge and ensure we’re directing our efforts to where they can do the most good.

Before you settle into a little ‘you’ time, we’d like to take the opportunity to tell you a little bit about the work that’s been going on in the background and where it’s leading Auckland Hockey into 2025.

The Board

With a few months now under our belts, your Auckland Hockey Board has shifted past the discussing, planning and hot-fixing the immediate issues we were saddled with, and moved into lifting, building and moving towards a brighter, more connected community. As we push forward, we’d like to reaffirm our pledge to keep you informed through our process to a stronger Auckland Hockey; supporting you whether it’s through your clubs, our representative programs, our volunteers and our supporters. Together we’ll ensure we’re all part of something incredible – an association revitalised that we can all be proud to call our own.

The board itself is finding its feet with one another in what can only be described as a positive and passionate relationship. Respectful discussions provide the cornerstones for the ideas that get recommended to the Auckland Hockey staff. With such a diverse skillset on the Board, there’s always someone knowledgeable who’s able to carry the ideas and ensure the direction is in the best interest of Auckland Hockey. This, coupled with our commitment to transparency, will ensure that as things change in the coming years, you can be assured they’ll be done with the intention of making our community stronger. ‘Pride’ has been our key word for the start of our terms in office, and it’s our hope that the decisions we make will ensure all our members have an association they’re excited to be a part of!

Colin Maiden Park

Through the incredibly hard work of Sarah Anderson, Vijay Patel, James Sutherland and the Auckland Hockey Facilities Trust, we are excited to report that we now have $8 million Phase 1 fully funded and will start on-site in the New Year!

Over a decade in the planning, there’s a renewed energy about the development with the crucial fundraising enabling us to get to the point of construction. There is a 9-month construction timeline,  with Phase 1 Earthworks and Turf Construction taking the bulk of the time. Our efforts in the New Year will turn to raising the $850k needed to fund Phase 2 – Floodlights and Electrical. Coupled with the re-laying of the LEP 2 turf and hockey next year will truly be something to look forward to!

Regarding the turfs, we wanted to take the time to explain what you an expect from Colin Maiden Park when online for Summer 2025. These will be two non-irrigated turfs and will be Polytan’s updated generation of the new LEP 1 Paris 2024 carbon zero surface. These turfs are at the leading edge of turf technology. Should it be required, there is a water bore in close proximity and future-proofing in the design to enable irrigation as an additional project phase at a later date.

We’re excited about the dynamic these turfs will bring to our sport for years to come and the impact they will have on our commitment to sustainability. We’re excited to lead the future of turf technology with our turf partner Polytan.

Strategy Session

The Board recently completed a strategy session guided by the lovely and knowledgable Anita Hawthorne, an ex-SLAM and Auckland University alumni. The focus was on ensuring the pillars of our Association, (Our People, Accessibility to Hockey and Memorable Experiences) were defined to achievable quarterly goals to nurture and grow these over the next three years.

To achieve these we know we must deliver a quality club competition, a great representative programme with transparency in selections for players, coaches and managers, support our clubs administratively, and provide spaces within our community where hockey can be explored, improved and celebrated. Financially, there’s always work to be done to ensure we can deliver on our ambitions. With James at the helm we know we’re in the best spot that we can be, and while there will always be setbacks when shooting for the stars, our commitment to our overall goals will ensure we will adapt and reorient as needed.

Auckland Hockey staff and recruitment for new Head of Hockey role

We’d like to give special thanks to James, Rochi, Denise, Coralie, Manoj C and Emma, as well as Merissa who left in July, who have all put in an incredible effort this year. Many may not know, but with only three current full-time staff in 2024 there was an incredible amount of work to be managed by very few through an entire season of club hockey, delivery of the entire rep programme and running events like Club Finals, Secondary School Tournament, Premier Hockey League and the Masters World Cup. Please know that your commitment and passion is felt throughout our community. To you all, as well as the countless volunteers who have supported them, have an amazing break, recharge and thank you!

We’re also excited to announce the first new staffing role as we navigate the rebuilding of the staff team and recruit for roles needed for success in 2025 and beyond. Applications are now open for a Head of Hockey at Auckland Hockey. Poised to lead our Hockey Department with a key focus on our Hockey Strategy, Representative and Performance pathways, they’ll be crucial in ensuring we can continue to deliver incredible hockey to all of our members. Applications close on Monday 13th January, with interviews intended for late January for an appointment in early February!

Representative Hockey

As we reflect on a busy end to the representative season, the Board would like to take a moment to acknowledge and congratulate all of our representative players, coaches, managers, officials, volunteers, parents and friends of AHA. Thank you for your continued passion and dedication for our fantastic family game.

We have had a very successful end of season as teams participated in the annual Northern region U14 and U16 tournaments run at North Harbour. It takes an incredible effort to coordinate this number of players, coaches and officials to support this event so thank you to Rochi and the team for all your mahi. With the NHC, Auckland sent four teams (two men’s and two women’s) who played admirably, with our Tier 1 Women’s team defending their 2023 K-Cup crown in it’s 100th year!

A large number of players and officials were also playing and participating in Masters World Cup which was a hugely successfully event run at North Harbour stadium with AHA occupying a supporting role with four days of hosting.

We’ve also had a number of players attend the Future Black Sticks camp in Hamilton and a large contingent of players, coaches and officials playing and participating in the inaugural Premier Hockey League (PHL).

As if this wasn’t enough, we are excited to have been announced as hosts for the Vantage Black Stick’s Women vs USA on Friday 17th and Sunday 19th of January at Lloyd Elsmore Park Stadium. Congratulations to Aucklanders Breana Catley, Rebecca Baker and Rose Tynan who have all named in the squad too!  Get your tickets here!

We are also hosting the Oceania U21 Junior World Cup Qualifier event from Wednesday 29th – Sunday 2nd of February, showcasing the future starts of a U21 men’s and women’s hockey in Oceania. Congratulations also to current and former Auckland Representative players Kaea Elliot, Holly Hilton-Jones, Jayda Pawhau and Emma Irwin who have all been selected in the New Zealand U21 women’s team!

Over the past few months, Board members have sought feedback from a variety of people and groups across our sport on opportunities and challenges we currently face in the representative space. We have been listening. Key messages include:

• Processes for selection of coaches, managers and players needs to be more transparent.
• We need to acknowledge and cater for those seeking development and those wanting to aspire to higher honours.
• We need to be clear on the role of clubs, AHA and Hockey NZ.
• Our approach needs to align with Hockey NZ strategy.
• We need to develop a set of of manager processes and guidelines to make it easier for the role of those managing teams.

What will hockey look like in 2025?

To summarise our intentions, we’re hopeful that 2025 will be a year that we see hockey refined and improved. New turfs across Colin Maiden Park and LEP2. The implementation of fresh ideas and refining processes. Transparency of our goals, our decisions as well as what our expectations and processes are for our rep players, managers and coaches. Additional resource to help facilitate and run the hockey we provide. Celebrations of our Representative players, volunteers and community members who work and help bring our game to Auckland. We will also be working on updating our constitution and providing support to clubs as required to ensure we meet the new Incorporated society requirements

So, from us, we’d like to wish you all an amazing break and we’re looking forward to seeing you in the new year. Happy holidays to you all!

Pam Elgar (Chair) and the Auckland Hockey Board