In His Own Words I Tyler Lovell

BY TYLER LOVELL

My first memory of hockey was actually not on the hockey field.

It was leading into my first season of Minkey at Kalamunda and my brother and I got new hockey sticks to play.

We weren’t supposed to play with them until the day, but we got hold of them and we were hitting around with them in our bedroom, before Dad came down and confiscated them because we were playing with a hard ball inside with the glass windows, which was a big no-no.

My brother and I used to play a lot of hockey when we grew up and luckily I was a twin, so we would be out the back hitting the ball against the wall for hours, but the constant banging used to drive Mum and Dad, as well as the neighbours crazy.

I was pretty lucky to grow up playing out at Kalamunda and I was able to play goalkeeper for my own age group, starting in under 11’s.

I would also then play up in the under 13’s as a striker, and I have always backed my ability to score a few goals.

From around the age of 13, after I would play my junior game in the morning, then in the afternoon I was playing in the third-grade side on the grass.

At Kalamunda we were never really in the top grades, so often I wouldn’t touch a ball as a goalkeeper in those games.

To be able to get this exposure in men’s games at such a young age probably put me in a good place for the future.

Growing up Mum and my Nan were my biggest influences.

We were a big hockey family, my Nan played, my Mum played, my brother and my sister also played.

I think Mum definitely was the biggest influence through juniors though, she would take me to trainings at 6am on the other side of the city, she would encourage me, she would hit me hockey balls out the back when I would put the pads on, and she is still my biggest supporter.

When it comes to coaches who I think had an impact coming through juniors, there were various coaches at Kalamunda and then a few when I started in the WA state network when I was about 13 years old.

Colin Howell was the coach of the under 15’s state team, and he was the first real coach I remember having an impact.

I remember he sat me down one day and said “Look, you’re going to get told a lot of things as a junior hockey player, but it is up to you to decide what information is good for you, and what information is not good for you”.

That is probably still one of the biggest pieces of advice that I take on board, being a Kookaburra now.

There is lots of ideas that get thrown out there and you try them, but then it is ultimately up to me to then figure out what works for me and what doesn’t work for me.

In around 2008 when I was at YMCC and had been there for 4 to 5 years, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to keep putting the effort in and playing hockey at the top level or not.

Chris O’Reilly was the coach then, and during pre-season basically rang me up and ‘read me the riot act’ and told me to either pull my head in and train hard this year with them, or he’d find someone else to fill my spot.

That was a pretty telling season for me, we went on and won the premiership that year, which is sort of where the journey back into the Thundersticks started, but it was definitely a long road.

I had chosen not to pursue it when I was younger, I just wasn’t ready mentally then.

I was lucky enough to get another opportunity, and many people don’t get that opportunity.

My international career then began around the time of the Super Series in 2012.

That year, the Thundersticks lost the AHL grand final to Queensland.

We were at the airport on our way back to Perth and I remember having a conversation with Andrew (Andy) Smith, who was the high-performance manager then.

He told me they were keen to get me down to train with the National Squad and would be in contact within a couple of days.

I don’t really know if I was ready for it then, I just remember rocking up to training, and I never used to wear armguards back then, but Ric [Charlesworth] told me in no uncertain terms that I was going to start wearing armguards.

Then I was picked to play in the Super Series, and although it wasn’t a capped international match, it was still exposure to international teams such as Pakistan and Argentina who were here at that time.

That was a bit of an eye opener for me, going in and playing that international series, where the goals are a metre wider, and bigger than they normally are, which was pretty challenging, but also a lot of fun and a great way to break into the Australian Squad.

I got very lucky.

Not many people get to play any home games, so to be able to play so many here in Perth, including my first game and my 100^th game, is very special.

If I look back now, playing the first thirty-or-so games for Australia was a bit surreal.

I was just going along with the ride, and the opportunity was there.

I got selected and I trained at what I thought was a hard level back then, and then at the start of 2014 I got to go on all of the tours, including the World Cup, which we won.

That was an amazing team, we won 6-1 against Holland, in front of around 18 000 Dutch supporters.

It was probably after that, I realised I should probably work a bit harder.

I had been very lucky up until that point, but I was always the second goalkeeper.

I realised that if I wanted to be the number 1 goalkeeper I had to change things and there was a lot of off-field habits that I changed.

I got fitter and was able to train harder, and then from that I was able to improve.

I watched Andrew Charter play ahead of me and have a fantastic tournament.

I then thought to myself that I wasn’t comfortable being the second goalkeeper.

I wanted to be the number one goalkeeper.

It was just after that that I came back and missed out on the Commonwealth Games.

That tournament was a 16-player tournament, and that really sucked for me.

So after that I decided to change those off field habits and work a bit harder, get a bit fitter, lose some weight, get stronger, and then that had a flow on effect to being able to train harder on the pitch and my performance got better from there on.

That would be the moment that I changed as an athlete, and I really wanted it more.

I understood it better, after being in the program for two years, and I always wanted to get better and learn different ways to do so.

There is the old saying that you can never put an old head on young shoulders.

I wish I had have listened to the ‘older heads’ earlier, that definitely could have made a difference to my hockey career at a younger age.

I think it is really important that you enjoy what you do, and you love hockey.

All the Kookaburras love being here, and it isn’t a chore.

We get up at 5am most mornings to train, and if it becomes a chore and you don’t enjoy it then that really isn’t a good thing.

As far as being a goalkeeper, it can be a very lonely position.

You make one mistake in a game and it may cost your team the game.

Where a field player may make multiple mistakes and have the opportunity to make up for it.

But in the same breath I will say it is the best position because you can also win a game for your team, when your team is struggling and you can step up and perform, it is the best feeling and that is awesome to be a part of.

All athletes figure things out at different stages of their careers.

If you can somehow fast track figuring out what it takes to be elite, then you are better off for it.

To all of the young players, you just need to enjoy it.

As told to Erin Harwood