The last three months have been very busy, Dutch play-offs, EHL finals, moving to Australia and playing for Australia. I’ll start with the Dutch play-offs which now seem like a long time ago. We played Rotterdam in the semi’s and it was very close as I expected. We lost the first game away 1-0, won the second game in extra time 3-2 and won the third 4-1. It was a relief to make it through to the final against Amsterdam who were hungry to win a title from us. We ended up winning the final in three games and once again they were hard, tough games against Amsterdam. The first one we won 5-3, second we lost 3-2 and the last game we won in extra time. I was over the moon winning my second Dutch landskampion. Celebrations were pretty big but we had EHL finals the week later so we had to control ourselves a little bit.

EHL, this was something that I really wanted to win because I had never won it and Bloemendaal have not had a good record in Europe. With the new rules I thought it would suit our game. We played the semi again against Rotterdam and the first half we played really well and were 2-0 up. Third and fourth quarter we were not as good and let Rotterdam get back into the game but we ended up winning 4-3. The final was against Uhlenhorster HC. We got off to a flying start and were 5-1 up at half time but after the break the Germans came home strong. We ended up winning 5-4 in a close game in the end. The atmosphere was amazing with the Bloemendaal and Uhlenhorster fans being very vocal. It was great to play in front of a packed, noisy crowd on a great pitch at Rotterdam with great new rules, which I believe are better for the game. I think EHL is great and good for hockey. The only thing I think they can do better is to video the game from the baseline not the sideline. That way you can see the movements of the players a lot better. For Australia and Bloemendaal we always video the game behind the goals because its easier to see. I’m no video expert at all but I would like to see how it looks on TV.

Moving back to Australia, this is always something I like doing. Getting home seeing the family and friends and enjoying the beautiful weather. I didn’t get too much time off and got back into the hockey here in Perth at the AIS. We have been training for six weeks now under our new coach Ric Charlesworth.

The Aussie games: we played some games against Malaysia and Canada and Australia A. Malaysia were a tough and young team who are on the rise but a bit inconsistent. We also were a little inconsistent in the games. Canada are always a tough team to play. They are very physical and get a lot of numbers behind the ball. I can see how they beat Argentina by the style they play.

Next week we (Australia) are off to Sydney and then New Zealand for the World Cup Qualifier. We play a one off final against New Zealand which is going to be very tough. I wish it was best off three but Samoa are also coming to NZ for the World Cup Qualifier.

Until next time.

Cheers Jamie