The Goodall Cup is the third oldest hockey championship trophy in the world. Only the Stanley Cup (1893) and the Allan Cup (1909) are older than Australia’s national championship trophy, first awarded to New South Wales in 1911.
Since 2000, the trophy has been handed out to the winner of the new Australian Ice Hockey League, which is now celebrating 25 years and thriving as the main national league Down Under. There are ten teams, two in Sydney (Bears and Ice Dogs) and two in Melbourne (Ice and Mustangs) along with the Newcastle Northstars, Perth Thunder, Canberra Brave, Central Coast Rhinos, Adelaide Adrenaline, and Brisbane Lightning. This season, however, the two Sydney teams are inactive because of extensive renovations being done to the Macquarie Ice Rink, which the teams share.
In the AIHL’s first season, there were but three teams—Adelaide Avalanche, Canberra Knights, and Sydney Bears (which is the only original team from 2000 still playing). The top two played a one-game final to determine the league champion. Two years later, the league doubled in size, adding the Melbourne Ice, Newcastle North Stars (which changed its spelling to Northstars in 2002), and West Sydney Ice Dogs.
The mid-aughts brought more teams and big names. In 2005, the Avalanche signed former NHLer Steve McKenna, and a year later, the Brisbane Blue Tongues brought in Rob Zamuner, a longtime NHLer who played for Canada at the 1998 Olympics alongside Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros. Mel Angelstad, Tyrone Garner, and Gaetan Royer followed, as Australia became a viable option for players whose NHL days had come and gone but who still wanted to play at a decent level.
The year 2012 was another watershed moment for hockey in Australia. For the first time, the AIHL created two conferences, Bauer and Easton, and a Trans-Tasman Champions League tournament took place involving teams from both Australia and New Zealand. Like everywhere around the world, COVID-19 caused a major disruption to the league, which didn’t operate in 2020 or 2021. But when it returned, it did so with purpose. Foer the first time, games were now a regulation 60 minutes (previously they had been 45 minutes (2000-12) and 50 minutes (periods of 15, 15, and 20 minutes)), and the league signed several new broadcasting deals both at home and abroad.
Teams now play a 28-game schedule that starts in April and runs to the end of August (i.e., the Australian winter). Newcastle has won the championship seven times, the most of all teams, while the 2024 champions were the Canberra Brave. This year, however, the Melbourne Ice are running away with the regular season. They sit in first place with 55 points, far ahead of second place Perth Thunder (34).
Impressively, Japan’s Yu Hikosaka (Thunder) leads the league in scoring alongside Canadian Tanner Hopps (Lightning), both with 49 points so far. But the 4th to 8th place leaders all play for the Ice.
The general health of the league is both cause to celebrate and also of concern, for all the right reasons. Games are sold out to 98 per cent capacity, but that’s because most arenas seat only 2,000-3,000 fans.
“We’ve long since outgrown these facilities, and we’re starting to move into bigger facilities, with new rinks planned across the country, especially Canberra and Adelaide,” explained Steven White, the Head of Communications and Media for the league. “But,” he added, “this is currently a slow process.”
The O’Brien Icehouse in Melbourne is famous for having hosted the L.A. Kings and Arizona Coyotes as a practise facility for the NHL’s Global Series in 2023. As well, there has been a paradox in growth. While the game is seeing greater and greater interest around the country, the number of ice rinks has halved in the last few decades (from about 40 to 20) as land becomes more valuable for other real-estate projects.
White explains that although the league isn’t fully professional (player expenses are covered by private sponsorship), the league still attracts “professional players from leagues all across the world. This year we have ex-NHLer David Booth playing for the Melbourne Ice. Ty Wishart and Scott Timmins, who play for the Melbourne Mustangs, also used to play in the NHL. We generally attract players from European leagues, but in terms of North America, we have many imports from the ECHL, SPHL and collegiate leagues.”
Like any of the top teams that play in the IIHF World Championship, the Mighty Roos, as Australia’s national team is colloquially referred to, also draw on the AIHL for virtually all of their players. Australia played in WM-II-A in Belgrade this past season with a team that included Casey Kubara, Cam Todd, Kieren Webster, and Ethan Hawes, all stars in the AIHL. The team finished fifth and will be back in II-A for 2026.
That being said, some of the country’s truly best players play outside Australia and aren’t available, notably Nathan Walker, the nation’s most famous player who has appeared in more than 200 NHL games since 2017, and Kale Costa, who has played in Czechia for several years.
All in all, the AIHL is celebrating a quarter century of existence in fine style, and with greater fan interest and more player development, those new rinks will need the extra seating for years to come.