Tim Watts MP – Delivering new floodlights for Altona Hockey Club

April 15th, 2025

Federal Member for Gellibrand Tim Watts said the new floodlights would be an important amenity for the high-performing hockey club in Melbourne’s West, while encouraging new players to get active.

“We have a very active community in Melbourne’s West and I’m glad to be supporting Altona Hockey Club’s lighting upgrade so they can attract members and foster inclusion of more women and girls in the sport,” Mr Watts said.

“We’re building better facilities because we have a vision for building Australia’s future.  

“Field hockey was my first sporting love, so I’m pleased that the Albanese Government is investing in safe and accessible facilities to support both existing players and locals joining the sport for the first time.

“The upgraded floodlights will help the club foster more sporting talent to continue the series of national representatives the club has generated in recent years, including current Kookaburra, Cooper Burns.” 

Altona Hockey Club Board Member and Premier League women’s player Bronte Kerly said the new floodlights will allow the club to expand its operations and give a boost to its women’s and junior girls’ sides.  

“Feeling safe and comfortable is one of the key barriers for female-identifying players to stay in sport,” she said.

“The 13 to 18-year age groups are particularly vulnerable to dropping out for these reasons, so quality lighting at night will help to create a safer atmosphere, whilst the improved visibility from these lights will help minimise risk of injury for all players during night trainings and games.

“These new lights will also enable the club to host a higher standard of hockey – such as Premier League – for night games, giving our women and girls section greater local exposure to performance hockey pathways.”

The new floodlights will complement Hobsons Bay City Council’s upgrades to the council-owned facility, which involve developing a new pavilion, including four change rooms, umpire facilities, multi-purpose space and storage.  

Consistent with past practice, election commitments will be delivered in line with Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles.

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Tracey Drake elected Chair of Hockey Victoria

May 10th, 2024

Congratulations to Tracey Drake who has been elected as the Chair of the Hockey Victoria Board! She is also the first woman to have served as the Chair since Hockey Victoria was formed more than 20 years ago.

Tracey has been Vice Chair since 2020 and a member of the HV Board for 12 years. At Altona Tracey was a long-time State League 1 player, and Board Member for 20 years prior to stepping down in 2022. She is the current Women’s Pennant C playing coach –  and has had a big impact on that group in her recent return to playing – and the Chair of Selectors for Women’s Premier League.

Anyone who has spent any time with Tracey will be confident that she can have a big impact and bring a large amount of expertise to the role. It is one of the most pivotal positions for hockey in Victoria and Australia, and from all at the Altona Hockey Club, we wish Tracey well in the role.

Read the full announcement: https://www.hockeyvictoria.org.au/news/board-update-may-2024

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The Altona Hockey Club Board Supports the Voice to Parliament

July 6, 2023

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2022 Annual Report & Summary of the Year

30 December, 2022

From the Altona HC President, Alex Tyrrell:

​This year has been an historically important year for the hockey club in many ways, returning for our first full season after two abandoned seasons in a row – the first time in over 70 years – and also celebrating our 90th Anniversary as a hockey club. Founded in 1932 as the Altona Baptist Hockey Club and entering a single men’s team, it was great during the season to reflect on how far we have come to be the large, diverse and successful family club that we are today. One of the standouts of the year was the 90th anniversary function which featured two panels of members regaling the audience with stories going back through the decades all the way to the 1940’s thanks to Life Member Frank Ranger (also celebrating his 90th year).

As you will see echoed many times through this Annual Report – it was great to be back on the pitch for a full season in 2022. The focus really shifted back to the pitch and our members playing hockey, improving, having fun and competing. We returned to almost identical numbers to 2021 thanks to the great work of the Board and Volunteers, particularly Tiff Bartlett leading the junior section of the club, and all of the coaches involved in creating a positive environment.

There were many highlights of the year which will be outlined in this document, some of my personal highlights:

• Two Altona juniors, Cooper Burns & Connar Otterbach representing Australia together in the U21 Burras at the Sultan of Johor Cup.
• Cooper taking out the Fin McNab Award to be Altona’s first Premier League Best and Fairest winner since Justine Cooke in 2006, and first male winner since Darren Duff in 1994.
• The finals campaign including our first ever Premier League home final in front of a huge crowd, with the men making a run to the Prelim, the Women’s Metro winning the Premiership and our Men’s Metro & Pennant teams all featuring.
• Pride Cup being one of the biggest days on the calendar with a big crowd, members from across the club asking to be involved and the incredible atmosphere created by both our members & the clubs we played against.
• The Senior Men & Women both winning the Indoor Victorian Club Championships on the same night at the brand new facility at Parkville.
• The Facility Development progress, meeting and engaging with local Parliament Members Tim Watts & Jill Hennessy, the Mayor of Hobsons Bay Peter Hemphill, our local Councillors Daria Kellander and Tony Briffa, as well as local council officers. The development is progressing well and an extremely important project for the club.
• At both ends of the age spectrum – huge Hookin2Hockey numbers for the 8-week program at the start of the year led by Andrew Scanlon, and then at the end of the year, the launch of a 10-week Walking Hockey program for the 50+ age group, led by Prue Phillips and supported by a Hobsons Bay City Council Grant.

As a Board, one of our biggest goals for this year was to return to some sort of normality for hockey, and this also meant with our full offering of teams and services on the pitch. With the inertia of regular hockey broken, it was a large administrative effort to get this in place and to have a successful year. We spent a lot of time at the start of the year ensuring that we had all roles and tasks at the club clearly laid out with both an accountable and a responsible party. This was a worthwhile exercise, and also helped to highlight some large risks and gaps in our volunteer force that we are working to fill. So if you are reading this and considering helping out – please reach out to myself or any board member, as a volunteer run organisation we rely on the help and support of our community.

The other main element that work highlighted is that we have over 80 people who regularly volunteer their time week in, week out to run the club. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of those people, in particular the Board for their work over the year in returning to hockey. And thank you to the wider AHC community in their efforts this year on and off the pitch in making the club what it is.

Go A’s.

Alex Tyrrell, President, Altona Hockey Club.

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