Eddie Ockenden on the 'Blue Collar' Kookaburras
Published Thu 22 Jul 2021
AUSTRALIAN hockey co-captain Eddie Ockenden refers to his team as the “blue collar” workers of our Olympic team; the tradies who are up at dawn, aren’t afraid of hard yakka and thrive on challenging each other.
And it’s this honest, hard-working approach the four-time Olympian believes will underpin the world number one ranked Kookaburras’ campaign at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Opening the hockey tournament in a blockbuster against host-nation Japan, the Kookaburras will go into the Games as favourites ahead of Belgium and recently-crowned European Champions the Netherlands.
“I think we have a real blue-collar mindset,” says Ockenden of his teammates, all of whom juggle their careers and study with elite sport.
“We get up early, we work our hardest and we push each other – there is definitely a strong culture – we all love the sport.
