Australian Hockey League

The Australian Hockey League (AHL) ^[1] is Australia’s premier national domestic field hockey competition. Despite its non-professional nature, AHL is considered one of the strongest and most competitive national field hockey leagues in the world. The AHL consists of both men's and women's competition. It includes many players from the Kookaburras and the Hockeyroos, and participating in the AHL is a selection requirement for all Australian national squad members.

History

The first season of the Australian Men's National Hockey League (former AHL) took place in 1991, when the perpetual national championship was replaced by a new-look format. The competition, which was played over a two-month period, did not limit player eligibility to state of origin. Six teams competed in the first year - Brisbane Blades, Melbourne Redbacks, Adelaide Hotshots, Canberra Lakers, Sydney Stingrays and Tamworth Frogs.

In 1991 and 1992, both the National Championship and the National Hockey League was played, placing a financial burden on the states. From 1993, the decision was made to play the National Hockey League as the sole competition in determining Australia's champion State.

The league has since evolved into an eight team competition played on a home and away basis before climaxing with a finals series. In 2000, 2004 and 2008 however, the league reverted to a two-week championship format. This format is designed to replicate the intense nature and heavy playing schedule of the Olympic Games.

The league embraced some big changes leading into the 2001 season as the former Men's and Women's National Hockey League combined to form the Australian Hockey League (AHL). Both the men's and women's leagues shifted their seasons from mid-year to February–April and a unique format was adopted.

The format devised allows a high level of hockey to be seen across Australia through four weeks of home-and-away competition. The league then climaxes with a full finals week that comprises three round matches, the semi-finals and finals.

Competition Format

Alternate Years

Each team plays a Home & Away series against 4 of the other teams, over 4 consecutive weekends, with 2 games in each series. Giving each team 8 Home & Away Matches.
The 8 teams then converge in one city for the Finals week, where each team plays the other 3 teams once, for double points, and then plays the relevant cross-over game and classification game.

Olympic Years

The 8 teams converge in one city for 2 weeks, where each team plays the other 7 teams once, for double points, and then plays the relevant cross-over game and classification game.

2010

The AHL will take on a new format in 2010.^[2] The 2010 men’s tournament will be played over two rounds and a finals week, consisting of each team playing a total of eleven matches. Round 1 will involve two pools of four teams that are linked geographically. The four teams in each pool complete a round robin in one of the region’s designated locations.
Round 2 will be played in two different locations. It will again involve two pools (pools will be different from those in round 1).

Due to conflicts with the men’s international calendar, there is a several week break between the conclusion of Round 2 and the beginning of Finals Week.
Finals Week brings all of the teams together in one location. The first two days of this week will complete the rounds component of the tournament, with each team now having played each other once.

Points Formula Points: Win = 6 Draw = 3 Loss = 0

Additional point (s) for each goal scored to a max of 3 for either team. EG - WA defeats TAS 4-3, WA will get 6 points for win, 3 points for goals, a total of 9 points and TAS will get 3 points for goals scored.

After all the round games are complete (Round 1, Round 2 and the first two days of Finals Week) the teams are ranked 1-8 depending on the total number of points earned in all the round games. The teams ranked 1, 4, 6 & 8 will go into pool A and the teams ranked 2, 3, 5 & 7 will go into pool B.

At the beginning of the classification stage only the points earned against the other teams in each pool are carried forward. (EG – If you are ranked team number 1, only your results during the round matches against teams 4, 6 and 8 will be carried over to the classification stage). Note – no team can carry through to the classification stage more points than a team ranked above them. Should this occur, the lower ranked teams points will be reduced to the same amount as the higher ranked team.

Classification Stage Once the classification stage commences the carried over points are added to the points gained during the classification games.
EG - team 1 starts the classification stage with 26 points, team 4 starts with 16 points. 1V 4 result in classification stage is 3:2 which is 9 points for team 1 and 2 points for team 4. At the completion of this game team 1 will have 35 points and team 4 will have 18 points. After the completion of the classification games teams will finish in each pool ranked 1-4 depending on the number of points accumulated.

The finals are then 1v1 (gold/ silver), 2v2 (bronze/ 4th), 3v3 (5th/ 6th), 4v4 (7th/ 8th) from each pool with gold, silver & bronze medals awarded.

Competition Rules

Points

Extra Time

Teams play two 6 minute halves.
First Half is 9-a-side.
Second Half is 7-a-side.
Golden Goal.
Still No Result, then Penalty Strokes.

Finals

Cross-Over Games
1st v 4th
2nd v 3rd
5th v 8th
6th v 7th

Finals
Final = Winner of (1st v 4th) v Winner of (2nd v 3rd)
3rd Place = Loser of (1st v 4th) v Loser of (2nd v 3rd)
5th Place = Winner of (5th v 8th) v Winner of (6th v 7th)
7th Place = Loser of (5th v 8th) v Loser of (6th v 7th)

Men's

Men's Results

Women's

Women's Results

See also

References

External links

• Official website