Hockeyroos star in selection tribunal showdown after shock Olympics snub
Rosie Malone had been expecting an email to drop into her inbox late last week, confirming her selection in the Australian women’s hockey team for the Paris Olympics.
Shortly before the squad list was sent out, however, a name she did not want to see in the circumstances popped up on the 26-year-old’s phone.
Hockeyroos coach Katrina Powell was ringing to inform Malone, a mainstay of the Australian team, that she had not made the cut for next month’s Games in France despite being one of only five players in the world nominated last December for the International Hockey Federation’s women’s player of the year award.
The news blindsided Malone and other members of the Hockeyroos, one of Australia’s most loved Olympic teams. The forward has launched a last-minute appeal against her omission.
Malone had been named last December in a 22-player pre-Olympics squad, but the Queenslander was unable to win a spot in the final list of 16 nor even a place as one of two reserves, according to sources with knowledge of the selection bombshell.
An Olympian in Tokyo in 2021, Malone has scored 32 goals in 106 matches for the Hockeyroos since making her debut in 2018 and after being recognised as one of a handful of the best players in the world only six months ago, a second Games appearance seemed a formality.
Rosie Malone has been a fixture in the Hockeyroos squad since she made her debut in 2018.
“Players within the team are shocked. She’s coming off one of the best years we’ve had from a Hockeyroo,” said a former teammate of Malone’s, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter.
The Hockeyroos squad is due to be officially announced next Monday and Malone has now set out to overturn the decision of selectors with an appeal.
Malone could not be reached for comment on Wednesday but with less than a fortnight to go until the deadline for the Australian Olympic Committee to submit its full list of athletes for Paris, the case is destined to be heard urgently before the National Sports Tribunal by the end of the week.
Hockey Australia’s selection panel comprises independent chair Rechelle Hawkes, the former Hockeyroos captain and three-time Olympic gold medal winner, as well as fellow gold medal winner Powell and assistant coaches Jeremy Davy and Hugh Pervis.
Malone celebrates scoring a goal against New Zealand in 2021.
According to Hockey Australia’s selection policy, listed on its website, selection considerations are a player’s current form and performance and their past playing record, as well as their physical qualities, technical skills, set play skills and flexibility. Also weighed up is according to policy is team orientation and “psycho-social perspective”.
The NST, established by the federal government as an independent umpire for sports disputes, tends to send decisions back to sporting federations for reconsideration even if it finds in an appellant’s favour.
However, the AOC’s Olympic Team Nomination and Selection By-Law allows for the tribunal to make a selection call itself if referral back to the sport is impractical in the time available, or if the national federation is found to have “had such disregard for proper application of the nomination criteria” with its original decision that a reasonable person would contend that it’s unlikely it would be applied properly a second time around.
Malone’s Olympic dream is now in the hands of the tribunal, as could be the place of another squad member who would have to make way if she is successful.
A Hockey Australia spokeswoman said on Wednesday the organisation was in the process of nominating teams for the Olympics in the AOC by Friday, as per the nomination policy.
“We’re respecting all of our players’ confidentiality during this nerve-wracking time and keeping their well-being in mind. The AOC will announce the teams in due course, with the date set for Monday, July 1,” the spokeswoman said.
It is not the first time Hockeyroos selections have been the subject of controversy and fiercely contested in the lead-up to an Olympics.
Goalkeeper Rachael Lynch and former captain Georgina Morgan successfully appealed after teammates threatened to strike when the pair were left out of an extended squad ahead of the Tokyo Games. Morgan ultimately missed out when the selections were later re-considered.
None of the current selectors were involved in the initial decision to omit Lynch and Morgan.
Australia won Olympic gold in women’s hockey in 1988, 1996 and 2000 but the Hockeyroos not won a medal since. They crashed out in the quarter-finals against India in Tokyo three years ago.