After a hiatus of nearly five years, the Champions Cup returns this weekend to ‘The Shed’ skate rink in Dandenong, Victoria.
The national rink hockey event will see state teams from Queensland, NSW, Western Australia and Victoria battle it out for the Champions Cup for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia’s premier roller rink hockey competition gets underway this afternoon and will run through to Sunday.
Queensland senior team player and coach of the state’s U19 mixed squad, Lyle Denman, is looking forward to seeing the states come together for what will be a high quality exhibition of rink hockey.
“It is super exciting to see the return of the Cup in 2025”, said Lyle. “It is the first one back since we got knocked about by Covid”.
Team Victoria are generally the team to beat according to Lyle, however the proud Queenslander is confident that his U19 side will be there come finals time.
“Victoria seems to always be strong due to the concentration of high quality players in one area, which is different to us in Queensland as our clubs are quite spread out,” said Luke. “But in the U19s I reckon we have generally got a chance to knock them off.”
Win or lose, Lyle loves seeing the growth that materialises amongst the player group off the back of these national competitions.
“Because we are such a small sport, we are very insular within our own clubs for most of the year,” said Lyle. “So when we end up going to these larger national competitions, particularly the kids, they just step up a level.
“You get to see all the work that the team hasn’t realised they have put in over the year, get realised over the space of a few days or a week.
“It is really kinda cool that you see so much growth and pay off for the kids in such a short amount of time.”
The 2025 Champions Cup runs from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 March.
2025 Champions Cup Schedule
Friday 28th March | ||||
Mixed U19s | QLD | v | VIC | 5:00pm |
Mens | QLD | v | WA | 6:15pm |
Mixed U19s | VIC | v | QLD | 7:30pm |
Women’s | QLD | v | WA | 8:45pm |
Saturday 29th March | ||||
Mens | WA | v | VIC | 1:00pm |
Women’s | WA | v | VIC | 2:30pm |
Mixed U19s | VIC | v | QLD | 3:15pm |
Mens | VIC | v | QLD | 4:30pm |
Women’s | VIC | v | QLD | 5:45pm |
Mens | WA | v | QLD | 7:00pm |
Women’s | WA | v | QLD | 8:30pm |
Sunday 30th March | ||||
Mixed U19s | VIC | v | QLD | 8:30am |
Mens | VIC | v | WA | 9:45am |
Women’s | VIC | v | WA | 11:00am |
Mens | QLD | v | VIC | 12:15pm |
Women’s | QLD | v | VIC | 1:45pm |
Awards | 3:00pm |
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