Eddie Ockenden Becomes the Sixth Most Capped Men Hockey Player

Australian men’s hockey team joint captain Eddie Ockenden (Aran Zalewski being the other captain) has become the sixth most capped men hockey player when he featured in the fifth and final Test match against India at the MATE Stadium in Adelaide. The 35-year-old Tasmanian, who celebrated his 400th international milestone with a resounding 7-4 win in the second Test match, surpassed Netherlands’ Jereon Delmee’s feat of 401 international caps – he is now behind the likes of Pakistan’s Waseem Ahmed (410 caps), India’s Dilip Tirkey (412 caps), Great Britain’s Barry Middleton (432 caps), Belgium’s John-John Dohmen (435 caps), and Netherlands’ Teun de Nooijer (453 caps).

He is the first Australian to make 400 international appearances and has scored 72 international goals as well. Ockenden, who plays for Tassie Tigers in the Hockey One (Australia’s domestic hockey league), made his senior international debut against Malaysia during the 2006 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at Ipoh and has scaled several ‘highs’ as a member of the Australian men’s hockey team – he was part of the national team that won the 2010 World Cup and 2014 World Cup at New Delhi and The Hague respectively.

The vastly experienced Kookaburras player was also part of the bronze-winning Australian teams at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The midfielder also won four consecutive gold medal for the Kookaburras at the Commonwealth Games (2010, 2014, 2018, & 2022). That’s not all, he has made as many as nine Champions Trophy appearances for Australia and clinching the gold medal twice in 2009 and 2011.