Roster announced for Australia Tour

July 10, 2009

Field Hockey Canada and head coach Alan Brahmst released on Friday the names of sixteen players and six staff who will make up Canada’s national men’s team on their Australian Tour scheduled for July 21st to August 9th, 2009.

Photo: PAHF / Alex Masters

The tour will be the second international competition for Canada since winning the Pan American Cup in Chile this past March.  The win qualified Canada for its first International Hockey Federation (FIH) World Cup in over ten years.

The tour will be the first time since the 2000 Sydney Olympics that the Canadians will play in Australia against the world number two-ranked Kookaburras.  Canada will be competing in a tournament against both Australia and Malaysia as well as in scheduled test matches against the host team.

Canada is currently ranked 11th in the world by the FIH.

Players of note on the team include two-time Olympians Rob Short of Victoria, British Columbia and Ken Pereira of Unionville, Ontario.  Short and Pereira each have 284 caps (senior international games), the most of all current players.

Also going to Australia are 2008 Olympians Ranjeev Deol, Wayne Fernandes, Connor Grimes, Mark Pearson, Peter Short, Gabbar Singh, Scott Tupper, and Paul Wettlaufer.

The core of the team will depart from Vancouver, British Columbia to Canberra, Australia on July 21st.  The remainder of the squad will depart Canada on July 25th following the conclusion of the 2009 Senior Men’s National Championship in Calgary.

The Canadian men most recently competed in a 4-Nations Tournament in Elekrostal, Russia last month where they finished second.  For that competition Coach Brahmst chose to send a much younger team mixed with a few veterans to broaden the spectrum of Canada’s internationally-experienced athletes.

One of the veterans who took part in the Russian tour, Pereira, has been named team captain for Australia.  Pereira was also named Canadian Player of the Tournament at the Russian event.

In the latest contest between the two sides Australia defeated Canada during pool play at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Roster:

Staff: