Question: How excited are you for the #FIHProLeague?
Eddie Ockenden: The #FIHProLeague is going to be pretty good. We like the fact that we are going to be playing in Australia, which is exciting for us as unfortunately we don’t play that many big games in Australia, so it is a good chance to play at home.
Aran Zalewski: Likewise for me too. Travelling to various cities for kind of exhibition matches is going to be really exciting for Ed, for myself as we play at my home state, and I think it is going to be really nice for all the friends and family to support us.It is also great that it is going to be like a league and we will be following who is on top all the time, similar to other leagues around the world. It is going to be very exciting.
Q: What makes #FIHProLeague different from other events?
EO: It is really different because it is just one or two games everywhere we go. So we are travelling to every country just for one game and hopefully every game is very big because of that big result on every single match.
AZ: I guess it is like a really long tournament spread over six months. Usually we play events over a much shorter period, like the World Cup, that lasts just over three weeks. So, the length of #FIHProLeague is something we will have to manage as well.
Q: How does it feel to play 8 games at home?
EO: Really exciting to play games at home. Australia will be excited too and hopefully we get big crowds for Kookaburras as well.
Q: How will your preparation be different for the six-month long event?
AZ: We are centralizing in Perth as the training centre for the Australia Hockey Team. So, we are used to training all year around, it is not too dissimilar for us. I guess the only thing that is different is travel. To travel and play two or three days later and travel again. So, that’s probably the only difference that we will face.
Q: Who is going to win?
AZ: Hopefully us but we will have to wait and see.
#FIHProLeague
