Starkie looks to keep Olympic 'promise'

Hockey in Western Australia has produced some of the best players in the world.

That’s no exception for the next generation coming through.

Christian Starkie is the latest addition to this year’s National Development Squad for 2022.

Being the deepest defender on the pitch, the young gun has overcome the slim chances to be recognised for his talent.

“It feels amazing to be recognised at the next level after being in the junior squad for a few years, he says.

“It feels super rewarding - especially as a goalkeeper - with there being only three spots.

“To be picked makes me feel like I am doing something right.”

Starkie is one of three WA representatives in this year’s Hockey Australia NDS, alongside Liam Flynn (Hale) and Tom Harvie (Wolves).

The squad features the next crop of 20 players aiming to reach Kookaburras selection, but the goalkeeper is not stressing about that just yet.

“To be in a position to try for Kookaburras selection is amazing but I don’t think that knuckling down and taking the fun out of training and playing is the right approach for me,” he says.

“Focusing on my own performance, enjoying the club season and when opportunities present themselves giving it my all is the approach I prefer to take, rather than making the process of trying to make the Australian team a grind and forgetting the fun.”

Regardless, being named in the squad is one of the highest achievements in hockey in Australia.

It’s something many people work toward, and a reward for hard work when representing his country at a junior level, and his state at the highest level.

Starkie says his family are proud as can be.

“I called my dad straight away, and he seemed as excited as I was,” he says.

“But my granddad always has the best reactions, he’s my biggest fan.

“Whenever I talk to him he is always asking about how my hockey is going and gets super excited about anything that happens.”

But his hockey talent didn’t come from his parents.

In fact, it was him who first played the game in the family, shifting to hockey at just eight years old.

“I started because I played football back in England,” he says.

“I was the year three goalkeeper in the school football team and the year six hockey team didn’t have a goalkeeper, so they asked all the football goalies if they wanted to play and I was the only one that said yes.

“From there I just played at school and stopped playing football and joined a hockey team when I was about 11.”

From then to now his love for the sport has flourished, playing for UWA in the Premier League, as well as representing WA at a junior and now senior level.

The almost 22-year-old plays hockey for a variety of reasons, one of which, how fun he finds it.

“The better the competition the more fun it is, the harder they hit it, the faster I have to move, the better a save feels,” he says.

“When it gets serious and the game is on the line, it just gets better, having the pressure of making a mistake and it resulting in a goal or being able to keep your team in it, there isn’t a feeling quite like it.

“There is also the social side, being able to play In a team with a bunch of your mates and celebrate a win or be with each other after a tough loss, that really keeps me wanting to play more.”

Being an athlete, along with the highs comes the lows.

Starkie says compared to others, he’s lucky to have never really been in a serious low point, and the highs definitely overweigh the speedbumps.

“My highlights so far would have to be winning gold in 2016 or being named goalkeeper of the tournament in Madrid in 2019,” he says.

“[Another is] definitely the 2016 under-18s grand final, we scored at the end of the game to make it go to a shootout and I was in goal and we won.

But his success is something he can attribute to the coaches in WA… some of the country’s best.

“It is extremely helpful, being able to talk to players who have been through the process and being able to ask questions and learn from them is an invaluable tool,” Starkie says.

“I love talking to both strikers and defenders, they have had experience with either what they want their goalkeeper to do or what they have looked for in opposition, so I can take things from that and add it to my game.”

To be achieving so much at the beginning of his hockey journey is incredible, and it won’t be the last time his name’s coming up.

Looking to the future, Starkie shares the same goal as many others who begin the same journey.

To represent the green and gold on the world stage.

“The ultimate goal is the Olympics as I am sure it is for everyone that picks up a stick,” he says.

“Actually, I promised at age nine to get an Olympic medal when my dad bought me my first kit, otherwise I have to pay him back for all the kit he has bought me.

“I don’t think I will ever be able to pay that back.”