Cooktown Crocs Underwater Hockey players made up a large majority of the under-19 Queensland team. Photo: Australian Underwater Hockey National Championships.
Cooktown’s underwater hockey scene may not be the biggest in the country, but players did more than pull their weight when they helped Queensland get the gold at the 2026 Australian Underwater Hockey National Championships last week.
The Queensland under-15 and U19 teams both finished on a high on Friday, not only winning the finals but also walking away from the Gold Coast showdown undefeated, conceding no goals.
“Both teams kept the opposition for the whole competition to zero, which is the first time it’s ever happened,” coach Scott Thomason said.
“The under-15s got over 100 goals, and they got zero goals put on them for the whole competition, which was unbelievable.
“The under-19s, they got zero goals scored on them too for the whole competition at a national level, which is pretty impressive.”
This year, there were more Cooktown Crocs players than any other club on Queensland’s U19 team — a testament to both local talent and community support.
Rocco Thomason led the charge as captain, and was supported by fellow Croc Sam Ryder (vice captain), Eli Carroll, Jett Ryder and Cruze Ryder.
Ryder also entered the pool as the captain of the U15 team, celebrating gold against team Western Australia with Cooktown-bred player Caleb Kamholtz.
The U15 team scored more than 100 goals throughout the competition, finishing undefeated and conceding no goals. Photo: Facebook (Australian Underwater Hockey National Championships).
Eamon Shanahan, Josh Slykerman and Alfred Joy were featured in the U15 Queensland/Western Australia combined developmental team.
“They ended up beating New South Wales twice, and they had a really close game in their last game against Tassie,” Thomason said.
“A lot of the time, these B teams will go through the competition not even scoring a goal and getting pretty well beaten.
“They were really well-coached by one of the WA guys. They did amazing, they learned so much, and they’ll be good in the next few years, building into the Queensland side.”
