This national competition is not played week in and week out, rather its juggled over the length of the season consisting of seven weekends, where I some cases, teams double up to meet draw commitments.
Every State is represented although the teams have nick-names such as the Western Australian Thundersticks, the Queensland Blades, the Northern Territory Stingers and the like.
Field hockey is one of Australia's great performing sports over many decades and when this writer wrote his first book on hockey, way back in 1982, Australia had not been out of the world top four rankings since the Champion's Trophy was initiated several years previously.
The Australian Hockey Team – the Kookaburras – have performed equally exceptionally in recent years with their Athens Gold Medal and Beijing Bronze. Under new coach Ric Charlesworth the Kookaburras last year displayed phenomenally winning Gold at the Champion's Trophy, the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games.
For decades field hockey was dominated by Commonwealth Nations such as Pakistan and India who won Olympic Gold right through to 1972 when at the Munich Olympics host nation West Germany beat Pakistan 1-0 after hotly disputed umpiring decisions. The Pakistan team refused to stand to attention on the medal dais and these players were given harsh suspension penalties.
The following Olympics in Montreal 1976 New Zealand beat Australia for Gold, then India came back in Moscow 1980 with Gold, Pakistan in 1984 Los Angeles, Great Britain in 1988 in Seoul from which time the European nations Holland and Germany came to the fore until Australia's Gold in Athens in 2004.
The Commonwealth Games "hockey competition" therefore illustrates the greatest hockey nations and for Australia to beat India in the final 8-1 was like the Australian Wallabies beating the British Lions 100-6. Unheard of, yet the Kookaburras dominance under Charlesworth has been simply outstanding.
The Australian Hockey League has a great deal to do with Australian hockey's strength from junior competitions right the way to this national league.
The current table in the Australian Hockey League has the Queensland Blades leading on 16 points followed by the Western Australian Thundersticks on 14.