Hockey Club Melbourne

HC Melbourne

Full name	Hockey Club Melbourne
Founded	17 April 2019; 5 years ago (2019-04-17)
Home ground	State Netball and Hockey Centre, Melbourne, Australia (Capacity 8,000)
League	Hockey One
Website	hockeyvictoria.org.au

HC Melbourne is an Australian professional field hockey club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club was established in 2019, and is one of 7 clubs to compete in Hockey Australia's premier domestic competition, Hockey One.^[1]

The club unifies both men and women under one name,^[2] unlike Victoria's former representation in the Australian Hockey League as the VIC Vikings (men) and VIC Vipers (women).^[3][4]

HC Melbourne competed for the first time in the inaugural season of Hockey One, which was contested from late September through to mid November 2019.

HC Melbourne, along with six other teams, was founded on 17 April 2019 as part of Hockey Australia's development of hockey.^[5]

HC Melbourne opted for a pure hockey club name, with a view to attracting the Victoria hockey public community whom CEO Andrew Skillern said "showed the rest of the country and the world what we can achieve by getting behind the home team and filling the stands as part of the 2019 FIH Pro League and we cannot wait to have the same support in the new league. The club logo includes 'M' for Melbourne.

Hockey Victoria had over 1,400 inaugural HC Melbourne members before the launch of the club. Hockey Victoria had strong aspirations to double their membership base before the season’s opening match, matching the club's bold identity.

HC Melbourne's colours are black and white with gold. The uniform moves away from Victoria's traditional navy blue.

HC Melbourne are based out of the State Netball and Hockey Centre in Victoria's capital city, Melbourne. The stadium has a capacity of 8,000 spectators, with 1,000 fixed seats.^[6]

Throughout the Hockey One league, HC Melbourne plays a number of home games at the stadium.^[7]

The following players were named in the men's squad.^[8]

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 FW  AUS Craig Marais 2 MF  AUS Max Henry 3 DF  AUS Simon Borger 5 MF  AUS Andrew Philpott 8 MF  AUS Joshua Pollard 13 DF  AUS Jayshaan Randhawa

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 DF  AUS Jonathan Bretherton 15 DF  AUS Josh Simmonds 17 FW  AUS Kiran Arunasalam 18 GK  AUS Johan Durst 21 FW  AUS Jake Sherren 23 DF  AUS Joel Carroll 24 FW  AUS James Knee 25 FW  AUS Aaron Kleinschmidt 29 DF  AUS Oscar Wookey

The following players were named in the women's preliminary squad.^[9]

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  AUS Laura Barden — MF  AUS Kristina Bates — DF  AUS Kary Chau — FW  NZL Hannah Cotter — FW  AUS Olivia Downes — DF  AUS Josie Erbsland — MF  AUS Gracie Geddis — FW  AUS Zara Geddis — MF  NZL Hannah Gravenall — DF  AUS Emily Hamilton-Smith — DF  AUS Alannah Hibbard — MF  AUS Charlotte Hodgson — GK  AUS Rene Hunter

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  AUS Dacia Koelmeyer — DF  AUS Josie Lawton — MF  AUS Charlotte Hodgson — GK  AUS Emma Leighton — GK  AUS Rachael Lynch — DF  AUS Evie Stansby — FW  GER Charlotte Stapenhorst — DF  AUS Sophie Taylor — FW  AUS Aisling Utri — MF  AUS Ciara Utri — MF  AUS Zali Ward — DF  AUS Bianca Zurrer