Four IAS Graduate hockey players will depart the South Coast on Sunday and travel to Germany for the Indoor Hockey World Cup. Simon Beaton, Flynn Ogilvie, Heath Ogilvie and Kurt Ogilvie will represent the green and gold at the six-day tournament. Australia will play in a pool featuring three-time defending champions Germany as well as Austria, Czech Republic, Iran and Sweden. “Our main aim is the top six and then see what we can do in the finals,” Heath Ogilvie said. “The last couple of World Cups they have finished sort seventh, eighth or ninth so we will want to improve on that.” The tournament is played from February 4-9. Australia will take a 12-man squad, including three of the Ogilvie brothers. “We are all pretty keen to play a World Cup together,” Heath said. “Kurt might be able to play another one but he is coming to the end of his [playing career]. It has come at the right time so we can all fit in the one team.” The youngest of the Ogilvie contingent, Flynn, has just returned from Kookaburras’ duty at the Champions Trophy. Flynn picked up a bronze medal at the tournament, just weeks after making his national team debut. “He hasn’t played too much indoor lately so he has been in training since he got back from the Champions Trophy trying to prepare for it,” Heath said. “He is pretty keen for it.” Indoor differs from the field game with just five players on court, including the goalkeeper. All four representatives play for University in the local competition and are looking forward to the challenge of playing the smaller format of the game. “It is smaller and a lot less players on the court which makes it a shorter, more intense game,” Heath said. “You are on for short spurts but you are going at 100 per cent for a lot of that. It is more high intensity sort of speed fitness rather than being able to run for 70 minutes like outdoor.” To track the team in Germany follow indoorhockeyaus on Instagram or @IndoorHockeyAUS on Twitter.
