Developing hockey players named in national squad

The 2017 men’s and women’s national development hockey squads have been announced by Hockey Australia, featuring seven athletes from the NSW Institute of Sport.

The selection comes on the back of further assessment of athletes previously identified as having potential to progress through the ranks to a senior level by the national head coaches, Paul Gaudoin and Colin Batch.

Three women and four men from the NSWIS Hockey Program make up the current selections for the development squads. Murphy Allendorf, Greta Hayes (pictured) and Mikaela Patterson join the women’s squad, and Tim Brand, Lachlan Shark, Kurt Lovett (pictured) and Ash Thomas form the New South Wales contingent of the men’s.

At this stage, in total 14 athletes have been selected to the women’s squad, while the men’s squad has named 15 athletes. Both national development squads will be boosted to a maximum number of 27 athletes following the Australian Hockey League which will take place in Perth this September.

At the end of 2017, both the national senior squad and the national development squad for 2018 will be named based upon athlete performances throughout the year.

Hockey Australia High Performance Director, Toni Cumpston, is excited about the future talent available for national selection.

“Our national head coaches have selected athletes who we believe have the skills that can be developed to form the next era of our high-performance program senior athletes.

“We will continue to identify opportunities for athletes to be assessed to enable our new coaching staff to thoroughly assess athletes to ensure we identify the best talent for success in Tokyo.”

The national development squads for 2017 are as follows:

Women’s Program National Development Squad 2017

• Murphy Allendorf (Mount Gravatt, QLD) (NSWIS)
• Lily Brazel (Newington, NSW) *plays for VIC
• Kalindi Commerford (Canberra, ACT)
• Savannah Fitzpatrick (Cabarita Beach, NSW) *plays for QLD
• Kyra Flynn (Hillarys, WA)
• Greta Hayes (Maroubra, NSW) (NSWIS)
• Ambrosia Malone (Molendinar, QLD)
• Hayley Padget (Hurstbridge, VIC)
• Mikaela Patterson (Blackbutt, NSW) (NSWIS)
• Meg Pearce (South Yarra, VIC)
• Aleisha Power (Clackline, WA)
• Teagan Richards  (Biggara Waters, QLD)
• Sam Snow (Blackburn, VIC)
• Penny Squibb (Tambellup, WA)

Men’s Program National Development Squad 2017

• Max Hendry (Camberwell, VIC)
• Matthew Bird (Coolbellup, WA)
• Jack Welch (Hobart, TAS)
• Tim Brand (Chatswood, NSW) (NSWIS)
• Scott Boyde (Chandler, QLD)
• Tim Howard (Wakerley, QLD)
• Lachlan Sharp (Lithgow, NSW) (NSWIS)
• Kurt Lovett (Parkes, NSW) (NSWIS)
• Jake Harvie (Daranup, WA)
• James Day (Crace, ACT)
• Kurt Mackey (Lauderdale, TAS)
• Josh Simmonds (Ringwood North, VIC)
• Corey Weyer (Biggera Waters, QLD)
• Ash Thomas (Baulkam Hills, NSW) (NSWIS)
• Johan Durst (Vanterbury, VIC)