The Australian and Oceanian Club Championship throws off on Thursday in Geelong, Victoria, with five-time champions Sydney Uni looking to defend their title and qualify for the 2017 IHF Super Globe. New coach Tomasz Szklarski says that, in contrast to previous years, Sydney Uni’s core squad remains unchanged and they are determined to win the title – but cannot do so without a quality performance.

“Every team and every game will be a challenge for us,” says Szklarski. “In terms of other teams, I think the Wolves, as a young and ambitious team, will fight to the end. UTS, our rivals playing on home ground, put up two teams this year, which sends us a signal that they have a wide variety of players to choose from and can surprise both us and host team St Kilda – our main rival on Australian soil.

 

“We can't underestimate other teams like the combined Perth and Adelaide team, who we faced in the finals last year. This should be an interesting and strong competition.”

 

Wolves HC coach Todd Morschel approaches the tournament with high hopes but knows his young squad will face a challenge against the more experienced sides.

 

“We have been preparing for this tournament since the beginning of the year and are looking to improve on our result last year, where we finished fifth overall. The team decided from the outset that we would aim to make the final of this tournament. To win is our ultimate goal as a club however, we think that realistically that is still three or four seasons away,” says Morschel.

“We have drawn Sydney Uni first in our pool matches and have realistic goals set for that match; hopefully we can play well enough in our preliminary games to meet them in the gold-medal match.”

 

The AOCC will be held from May 11 to 14 in Corio Leisuretime Centre, with men’s and women’s teams from Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia on court.

Further information can be found on the official AOCC website here.