Local young phenom leads state team

LAST week, a rising athlete competed in Australia’s north, representing the region in a different sort of sport to the usual football or netball.

Young hockey player and Teesdale local Lachlan Flett has been captaining the Victorian team in the Inline Hockey State Championships in Queensland.

Playing at centre in the under 11s, Flett led a 10-person team made up of players from across the state.

The games are Flett’s first in the official role as captain and he said he’s been relishing in the experience.

“It’s been really fun and a really good experience,” he said. “It’s really good to show them how to do trills correctly and how to make a box, how to do everything right and stuff like that.

“Before I was captain here, I was kind of already doing the stuff that a captain would as part of the state team and Australian team.”

“The best part for me so far was winning our first game against Tasmania because our first two games we lost seven to zero, then about 12 to one.”

Inline hockey is played with similar rules to ice hockey.

Flett’s current interstate competition preceded by a trip to Detroit in the US last year where he played for Australia in the State Wars Hockey Championship.

He’s been representing Victoria in state games since 2019 when he competed in the under 9s category, and has taken part in the Club Wars Bendigo Cup, both as an unaffiliated player, and with the Tasmanian team this year.

He took to the sport in 2017 following a skating session with his mother Kate and she said her son took to the game from day one.

“He had a natural talent and picked it up really quickly, mimicked other skaters who’ve taken him under their wings,” she said.

“He’s had a natural flair and ability for it. He’s actually exceeded his age bracket. His skill and power exceeds being able to play with peers his own age at Geelong Rollerway.

“In his mind, he just wants to keep playing tournament-based hockey because he loves meeting other like-minded players.

“They’re his people. Teesdale is very much football and cricket so this is very out of the norm and he really feels that living in a small country town.”

Flett takes to the rink weekly with senior players in division two, and has trained regularly at Docklands’ O’Brien Icehouse roughly twice a week for the past two seasons.

Flett’s said his goal is to compete again in the US as well as other overseas games.