The Melbourne Ducks are making a bid to join the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey League (AWIHL) as an expansion franchise. With two exhibition games having already been played and another four left this season, Hockey Hype Australia checked in with Ducks Head Coach Jeremy Muir about the process, and expectations for the remaining four exhibition games.

Many hockey fans, especially those based in Melbourne, would be familiar with the Melbourne Ducks. In 2021, the Ducks applied to enter the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) and split a two-game exhibition series with the Melbourne Ice.

However, due to COVID-19, the 2021 AIHL season was cancelled, the Ducks’ AIHL application fell through, and the organisation looked to other opportunities. Now, the organisation is looking to join the AWIHL.

As part of the application process, the Ducks are required to organise two exhibition games, and has already played two against the Melbourne Ice.

The team has organised another four games, two against the Sydney Sirens this weekend, and two against the Adelaide Rush in February.

“The ideas is that we play these six games and try to prove a few different things,” Ducks Head Coach Jeremy Muir told Hockey Hype Australia. “One, that we’re capable of competing – so that we’re not just a D Grade team.”

After the first two exhibition games went in favour of the Melbourne Ice 15-0 and 14-0, Muir is keen to use the remaining four games to grow the team, and build on positive stretches within those defeats.

“So we need to get some closer results in the next four games coming up, but we also need to prove that we’re well organised and can run games, adhere to all the AWIHL regulations and get some fans through the door,” Muir continued.

“If this summer season can be successful, in terms of us playing some games – obviously it would be nice to win some games – but at least if we can get some close score lines and show that we’re very competitive then hopefully when it comes to the existing five teams voting we can get enough votes to be a fully fledged team for the summer next year.

With the league currently comprised of five teams, at least one team stays at home while the other teams play. A sixth team would enable all teams to participate should the schedule makers choose to do so.

“From what I hear talking to the other coaches and just talking to people an even number of teams would be preferable,” Muir observed. However, Muir concedes that financial considerations will influence the decision.

“In the AIHL (Australian Ice Hockey League) it’s already hard enough to make ends meet in terms of making enough money from ticket sales and sponsors to cover costs. And the AWIHL is probably that one step behind,” Muir stated.

“I’m confident that we’ll be competitive, and I know that they want a sixth team, but the question is how to make it work so it doesn’t cost the players twice as much money to play.”

One of the concerns of a second Melbourne team entering the competition is whether it would deplete the roster of the incumbent Melbourne Ice.

“One of the things that we have to prove to the AWIHL is that we have our team in our own right,” Muir said. “The idea is that if we’re approved to enter the league next year, we can’t be stripping three quarters of the Melbourne Ice roster and then there’s no Melbourne Ice.

One player that would make the switch to the Melbourne Ducks next season if the team is approved to play in the league is Sharna Godfrey. While she is keen to add much needed skill and experience to the line-up, the uncertainty of being eligible for national team selection ultimately led to her signing with the Ice this season.

Another experienced player who is with the Ducks this year is Georgia Carson, who represented the Australian Senior Women’s Team earlier this year but was unable to make the Ice roster due to an injury. She is joined with around three other players, according to Muir, who tried out for the Ice but were unsuccessful.

This season, the Melbourne Ice has one of the strongest rosters in the AWIHL, and were pre-season favourites to hoist the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy at season’s end. As far as AWIHL teams to pick to play the team’s first exhibition game against, the Ice certainly weren’t the easiest choice.

“We obviously had never played together as a team in a proper game, and we had to go up against the Ice straight off the bat,” Muir chuckled. “So it was a really challenging endeavour.

“I would actually really like to play them again in February or March or after the season just to see if we’ve improved in five months.”

Although the score lines in both games were one-sided, there were stretches in each of the games where the Ducks went long stretches without conceding, and the coaching staff saw improvement even in that short space of time.

“In the first game, very few of the girls had played at that level before,” Muir noted. “We had Lucy Parrington, who’s our captain, and Amanda Blondin, and a few people who had played at that level. But the rest of them had never played the three twenty minute period, stop-start AWIHL hockey before.

“A lot of them were either in awe, or nervous, or anxious, and the first five minutes of the game they were kind of watching the Melbourne Ice players fly past them at 100 miles per hour. So we went down five-nil in the first six minutes of the game.

“It’s not a very good start. But then we kind of steadied, and over the next half hour we only let two more goals in, which was good. And then towards the end of the second period we had a patch again where we lost the mental focus and had another few goals go in quickly.

The lack of conditioning amongst the team meant that the team was fading in the third period, and an ill-advised body check led to the Melbourne Ice running up the scoresheet.

“One of our players didn’t mean to body check her, but sort of went to bump one of the Melbourne Ice girls and put her into the boards a little bit too hard, and it fired the Ice up. They came out in the third period and skated twice as fast and put another six goals in the net.

After giving up 15 goals on 55 shots, the Ducks had a better idea of what to expect and started the second game stronger.

“We were ready for the pace,” Muir agreed. “We told the players, this is the focus for the first few shifts, and we changed the line combinations, and moved a couple of players between forward and defence.”

“That really worked. We knew what to expect and our girls had a better mental focus, and the line combinations worked a little better.”

The Ducks approached the halfway point of the second period and the game down only 2-0, but after the Melbourne Ice took a penalty, the Ice scored two shorthanded goals on the same powerplay. Down 4-0, the Ducks gave up another couple of goals before the period ended.

“We’re down six-nil and in almost exactly the same situation as the day before, but we were playing so much better than the day before and we went into the second period break with almost the exact same score line against us,” Muir said, shaking his head.

“In the third period we generated some two-on-ones and some one-time chances, but the Melbourne Ice goalies had an answer for everything we threw at them.”

Another factor for the late collapse was the loss of one of the team’s best blue liners during the second period.

“In true amateur sporting style she had to leave during the second period to go to work,” Muir laughed. Another defender was scheduled to arrive after her child’s birthday party to replace the other defender. However, she couldn’t make the game and the team finished with five blueliners.

One of the bright young stars that the Melbourne Ducks are looking to build around is 18-year-old Niamh Gallacher. Gallacher played for Australia’s U18 Women’s team back in 2020, and the coaching staff have appointed her as an assistant captain.

“When we were looking around the team to see who we were going to give these letters to, we picked Lucy being a very experienced player, won the cup with the Melbourne Ice many times. We went with Amanda [Blondin], who is obviously one of our more experienced players.

“We thought Niamh is very mature beyond her years, and she’s a very good team person, very positive, she works hard, and she can bring people along with her, which are qualities which we look for in our leaders.

“She’s one or our top two defenders, so she’s able to step out on the ice and model how we want to play.”

While an eye must be kept on the present, Gallacher’s appointment is also with an eye on the future, as Muir mentioned the team is being built largely around youth.

“We’ve got quite a few good young players,” Muir said, “and the idea is to have enough older, experienced ones to provide leadership, settle the nerves, and to be that calming influence. We need to make sure that we have a large core that are under the age of 25 that we’re bringing along.”

Ducks Head Coach Jeremy Muir is also confident that the game day experience at IceHQ will be a great addition to the AWIHL.

“We’re hoping to have more local families come down and support us,” Muir said, referring to the next exhibition games against the Sydney Sirens. While the team had good numbers against the Melbourne Ice, Muir is optimistic of getting even more fans through the doors.

“The guys put on a good show, they put on the music and the lights and all the rest of it. And because the rink is very small and very intimate, it gives the small hometown Canadian barn vibe.

“Once you get three, four, five hundred people in there, it’s quite loud and it’s a really great atmosphere. The club and the rink very much has the attitude that growing the game is the reason we’re here.

“So we’re growing the women’s game at the moment, and the juniors, but it’s not just about players, it’s about fans and bringing people in.”

IceHQ has done some terrific work marketing it’s leagues, and Muir expects the same level of support and more if the Ducks are successful in securing an AWIHL team.

When asked what would constitute a successful exhibition season in the next four games, Muir aims high, and would like a win, but realistically that may not happen, especially with the Sirens and Rush being in mid-season conditioning and form.

“Whether the goals are to keep the teams below 10 goals against, or allow less than 30 shots per game, that would go a long way to helping us do better.

For Muir, it’s not about winning necessarily, but about the process, doing the little things to build a foundation for the results to come later. Scoring a goal would also be nice.

“If we can walk away from Sydney with an 8-2 score line or something like that, that would be a massive improvement compared to the first weekend. And then if we can improve further against Adelaide, maybe come away with a 6-4 score line and just show we’re getting better and better and we’re scoring more goals and letting less in, that’s hugely important to us.

“It would be nice to win a game, but we are realistic that these are established teams, and this is a national league, so it’s not going to be an easy task by any means, but we’ve just got to prove that we’re competitive,” Muir concluded.

If you are in Melbourne, make sure you get down to IceHQ this Saturday and Sunday to see the team play the Sydney Sirens. Game one is 7:30pm Saturday, game two is 4pm Sunday. Click here for tickets, and for more information, follow the Ducks on social media.