TOPIC:

wrote:

Beasley Hutton wrote:

I seem to remember the Australian men's hockey team in the 1970s, 80s & 90s invariably choking in the big medal play off matches at the Olympics as the red hot favourites 42.....surely you havent forgotten them already?
To put it succinctly you don't know what you are talking about BH.  For example, they didn't go to the 1980 Olympics.  Here is a hint for you, don't believe what you read and hear from journalists who know the same amount about hockey as you do.  That is, a conjoined twin to nothing.

Hmmm if you believe they didnt choke at the 1976, 84, 88, 92, 96 & 2000 Olympics you are kidding yourself 42!
A team that won many World Cups & Champions Trophys in that same time period always came up short at the more broadly followed Olympic Games would seem a choke to me!
This was a side that contained the likes of Charlesworth, Davies, Bestall, Bell, Mitton, Batch, Walsh, Hawgood, Haslehurst, Birmingham etc coached by Aggiss....but what would I know about hockey?! 

Spot on BH. Australia as I recall were gold medal favourites in most of these games, dominated other world hockey tournaments and cruised through the early rounds, hence were raging favourites but fell short (choked) in the medal rounds and often won bronze, didn’t even make to the gold medal decider. 

This happened often both in Ric Charlesworths playing time when he was regarded as the best hockey player in the world and later when he was coaching the Matildas to many gold medals, the men were falling short. 

I suspect our learned hockey maestro was a hockey player back in the day and or maybe has a kid, grandkid, niece/nephew playing at the highest level, hence feels he’s a lot smarter than you BH, a person well known here on Ozfooty for doing your homework. You should make the effort to get down to Bazzo occasionally S42, I’m sure Dr Ric would love to find someone at Bazzo to chew the fat about hockey. 

Beasley Hutton wrote:

wrote:

Beasley Hutton wrote:

I seem to remember the Australian men's hockey team in the 1970s, 80s & 90s invariably choking in the big medal play off matches at the Olympics as the red hot favourites 42.....surely you havent forgotten them already?
To put it succinctly you don't know what you are talking about BH.  For example, they didn't go to the 1980 Olympics.  Here is a hint for you, don't believe what you read and hear from journalists who know the same amount about hockey as you do.  That is, a conjoined twin to nothing.

Hmmm if you believe they didnt choke at the 1976, 84, 88, 92, 96 & 2000 Olympics you are kidding yourself 42!
A team that won many World Cups & Champions Trophys in that same time period always came up short at the more broadly followed Olympic Games would seem a choke to me!
This was a side that contained the likes of Charlesworth, Davies, Bestall, Bell, Mitton, Batch, Walsh, Hawgood, Haslehurst, Birmingham etc coached by Aggiss....but what would I know about hockey?! 

Beasley Hutton wrote:

wrote:

Beasley Hutton wrote:

I seem to remember the Australian men's hockey team in the 1970s, 80s & 90s invariably choking in the big medal play off matches at the Olympics as the red hot favourites 42.....surely you havent forgotten them already?
To put it succinctly you don't know what you are talking about BH.  For example, they didn't go to the 1980 Olympics.  Here is a hint for you, don't believe what you read and hear from journalists who know the same amount about hockey as you do.  That is, a conjoined twin to nothing.

Hmmm if you believe they didnt choke at the 1976, 84, 88, 92, 96 & 2000 Olympics you are kidding yourself 42!
A team that won many World Cups & Champions Trophys in that same time period always came up short at the more broadly followed Olympic Games would seem a choke to me!
This was a side that contained the likes of Charlesworth, Davies, Bestall, Bell, Mitton, Batch, Walsh, Hawgood, Haslehurst, Birmingham etc coached by Aggiss....but what would I know about hockey?! 

Let's start with the 2000 Olympics.  How did a team that did not LOSE a single game in the 2000 Olympics choke?  Further in the 2000 Olympics if the last round results had gone as expected the countries that won the gold and silver medals would NOT have qualified for the medal play-offs.  So to answer your question about what you know about hockey, the answer is not much.

Since you are acting like such an expert in hockey, perhaps you can share what makes you such an expert? You obviously have a strong interest/background in hockey. Did you represent Australia or Western Australia in hockey?

wrote:

Beasley Hutton wrote:

wrote:

Beasley Hutton wrote:

I seem to remember the Australian men's hockey team in the 1970s, 80s & 90s invariably choking in the big medal play off matches at the Olympics as the red hot favourites 42.....surely you havent forgotten them already?
To put it succinctly you don't know what you are talking about BH.  For example, they didn't go to the 1980 Olympics.  Here is a hint for you, don't believe what you read and hear from journalists who know the same amount about hockey as you do.  That is, a conjoined twin to nothing.

Hmmm if you believe they didnt choke at the 1976, 84, 88, 92, 96 & 2000 Olympics you are kidding yourself 42!
A team that won many World Cups & Champions Trophys in that same time period always came up short at the more broadly followed Olympic Games would seem a choke to me!
This was a side that contained the likes of Charlesworth, Davies, Bestall, Bell, Mitton, Batch, Walsh, Hawgood, Haslehurst, Birmingham etc coached by Aggiss....but what would I know about hockey?! 

Let's start with the 2000 Olympics.  How did a team that did not LOSE a single game in the 2000 Olympics choke?  Further in the 2000 Olympics if the last round results had gone as expected the countries that won the gold and silver medals would NOT have qualified for the medal play-offs.  So to answer your question about what you know about hockey, the answer is not much.

wrote:

It's one of life's mysteries....how is Australia so good at hockey?

I'm a big global cricket fan and hockey is to the Netherlands what cricket is to us, (Hockey is played everywhere there and in front of crowds) yet we are a big hockey nation (crowds here?) and they are quickly becoming a big cricket nation albeit only with 40-50 clubs....but do we have that many hockey clubs in Australia? Maybe!

Really interesting how countries develop sports and how they progress.

Australian hockey, particularly in WA, received a huge boost when the Pearce brothers came to WA in the late 40s.  Their influence continues to this day as a grandson, Jake Harvie, was in the men's hockey squad in the lead-up to the Olympics.

DD wrote:

Spot on BH. Australia as I recall were gold medal favourites in most of these games, dominated other world hockey tournaments and cruised through the early rounds, hence were raging favourites but fell short (choked) in the medal rounds and often won bronze, didn’t even make to the gold medal decider. 

This happened often both in Ric Charlesworths playing time when he was regarded as the best hockey player in the world and later when he was coaching the Matildas to many gold medals, the men were falling short. 

I suspect our learned hockey maestro was a hockey player back in the day and or maybe has a kid, grandkid, niece/nephew playing at the highest level, hence feels he’s a lot smarter than you BH, a person well known here on Ozfooty for doing your homework. You should make the effort to get down to Bazzo occasionally S42, I’m sure Dr Ric would love to find someone at Bazzo to chew the fat about hockey. 

Beasley Hutton wrote:

wrote:

Beasley Hutton wrote:

I seem to remember the Australian men's hockey team in the 1970s, 80s & 90s invariably choking in the big medal play off matches at the Olympics as the red hot favourites 42.....surely you havent forgotten them already?
To put it succinctly you don't know what you are talking about BH.  For example, they didn't go to the 1980 Olympics.  Here is a hint for you, don't believe what you read and hear from journalists who know the same amount about hockey as you do.  That is, a conjoined twin to nothing.

Hmmm if you believe they didnt choke at the 1976, 84, 88, 92, 96 & 2000 Olympics you are kidding yourself 42!
A team that won many World Cups & Champions Trophys in that same time period always came up short at the more broadly followed Olympic Games would seem a choke to me!
This was a side that contained the likes of Charlesworth, Davies, Bestall, Bell, Mitton, Batch, Walsh, Hawgood, Haslehurst, Birmingham etc coached by Aggiss....but what would I know about hockey?! 

Don't the Matildas play association football?  If you are referring to the Hockeyroos it helps to understand the differences between the men's and women's Olympic hockey events.  For example, in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics there were semi-finals played in the men's hockey event.  In the women's hockey event the countries that finished top of their pool progressed to the gold medal match and the countries that finished second played-off for the bronze medal.

sailors have done alright too chipping in

LH I was doing a bit of research on Hockey last night.Its the 3rd largest sport in the world.
1.Soccer ...4 billion fans
2.Cricket....2.5 billion fans.
3.Field+Ice Hockey......2 billion fans.

Isn’t Peter Bol a wonderful young man?  Apart from what he has achieved so far, he has a brilliant outlook on life and what the future and his past means to him.  It was also good to see him to shoot down some of the crap that the press printed about him.

Yep really excited to watch Peter Bol in the men's 800 metre final tonight.Bruce Mcavaney who calls the track events with passion.Is really excited about Peters chance's in this race.