Ice hockey is an 'underground sport' in Australia but Heated Rivalry and word of mouth are helping pique interest among children and young adults.
If there is one thing Australians pride themselves on, it's playing sport in the elements. From long days of cricket at the height of summer, the sun beating down harsh and unforgiving, to mud-soaked footy in the dead of winter. It's a test of character, and Australians wear it like a badge of honour.
So perhaps it is a surprise that Australia has yet to embrace ice hockey; tucked away in rinks so cold you need a puffer jacket just to sit and watch, even during summer. Combine that with its speed and brutal physicality, and it seems to tick every box. It might just be this country's best kept sporting secret.
That's all starting to change. The sport is having a moment, and Matt Armstrong, a stalwart of Melbourne's ice hockey community, is thrilled at the prospect.
"It's almost like an underground sport," he says. "No one really knows about it, and then once you do, you're hooked."
Armstrong has witnessed this groundswell of interest first-hand, having been involved with the O'Brien Icehouse Hockey Academy since 2010. Back then, there were just two classes offered. He now runs the academy - and it looks markedly different.
"We see over 1,200 students on the calendar year," he says. "We run hockey camps, we bring overseas coaches in. We try to give the Australian hockey player the best opportunity to pursue the sport."
As well as junior development pathways, there is also increasing demand for adult classes. "Beer leagues" - a term borrowed from North America that feels at home here - have exploded in popularity, with IceHQ in Reservoir now offering more than 10 divisions.
"Unlike in North America, where you have younger kids getting into the sport, and they're so excited and passionate - they try all the coloured laces, the coloured tape - here, it's all the young professionals and young adults," Armstrong says.
Outside expats raised on the sport, ice hockey seems to be growing by sheer word of mouth. With so little funding and such a heavy reliance on volunteers, anything that calls attention to its mere existence is beneficial.
"There's not a lot of people who know about it, unless you have a mate who's in it," Armstrong says. "It doesn't really hit your socials. We're trying to expose it a little bit more. We just need to get the game out there."
Visibility of the professional game overseas plays a huge role. The Winter Olympics drive a lot of interest, and Armstrong expects another uptick in participation after this year's Games in Milano-Cortina. Off the back of the 2023 Global Series in Melbourne, the NHL is as easy to access as it has ever been: every game is live on Disney+. The PWHL (Professional Women's Hockey League) in North America streams games for free on YouTube.
There is also pop culture. Heated Rivalry, the gay hockey romance that's a current global hit, has helped bring the sport into Australian public consciousness. The show has flooded social media, increasing awareness of ice hockey but also prompting genuine interest. Movies like The Mighty Ducks have long functioned in a similar way: once curiosity has been piqued, people seek out local offerings.
Christina Julien has played for Melbourne Ice Women, in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (affectionately called the "A-Dub"), for close to a decade. A dual sport athlete who also played football for Canada, she has been integral to the growth of women's ice hockey since moving to Australia. Julien speaks of a newly expanded league that is more popular than ever.
"[When] we played in the first Melbourne derby, I looked up and it was like, a sold-out stadium," she says. "It was a packed house, and people were having a great time. That was amazing to see. In past years, potentially we'd get that for finals, but it’s starting to creep into our regular season games."
Melbourne has just three rinks to accommodate all ice sports - including figure skating, speed skating, and curling - making competition for ice time fierce. But having the entire hockey cohort under essentially one roof, rather than separated out into clubhouses, fosters a strong sense of camaraderie.
"It's definitely a close knit community here in the ice hockey world," Julien says. "You go in and you basically know everyone at the rink: working at the rink, or they work for another team, or you've played against them."
Ice hockey's survival here is a labour of love, and you need only get down to a game to witness that love writ large. To see the skill on display, but to also see the rich tapestry of jerseys up in the stands, heralding teams far beyond those competing: from North American and European leagues, beer leagues, and even fictional teams. It's a kaleidoscope of colour, a living, breathing love letter, and you can't help but be drawn into it.
"I think the cool thing about Australia is that the people that don't know about it, when they do hear about it and they do come to a game, they're kind of amazed by it all," Julien says. "There's a high probability that you'll fall in love with it and really enjoy yourself."