Cooktown’s Sienna Thomason in action in the pool for Australia during the 2024 CMAS Age Group Underwater Hockey World Championships in Malaysia. Photo: Matt Hoskins.
Four Cooktown underwater hockey stars have come back to Australia with their heads held high after stellar results at the 2024 CMAS Age Group Underwater Hockey World Championships in Malaysia.
Rocco Thomason, Sienna Thomason, Sam Ryder and Amber Frame proudly represented their town and Cape York when they donned the green and gold in the under-19 and U24 divisions.
The U19 women’s team won gold for the first time in history, while the U19 men’s team narrowly missed bronze in the semifinals, and the U24 women’s team competed fiercely to make the quarterfinals.
Rocco led the U19 men’s team to silver as captain, and was also voted best back player by his teammates, while Sam was voted best forward.
“It was such a cool experience and opportunity to represent your country in a sport that we love,” Rocco said.
“It was pretty rewarding, seeing the team all work together and play so well and be so cohesive in the water, and being able to captain that team was great.
“Being noticed by your team and knowing that the people you play with appreciate you and the hard work you put in was really nice.”
The 17-year-old said in his six years of playing underwater hockey, he had often played against his Australian team members at national competitions, but after putting on the green and gold gear, camaraderie came easily.
“It’s like, you play against these people and you just want to beat them in the pool, and then when you’re playing with them the next day, you’re on their team and you want them to win, you want you to win,” Rocco said.
“I think when we put on the green and gold, we all get into that mindset together – we all have the one goal together, and we all know what we want to achieve.”
Sienna, who played in the U24 women’s team, said getting to the biennial world championships had been a long-time goal.
“It’s all kind of led up to this moment,” the 19-year-old said.
“Being from Cooktown, I never really thought I would have the chance to play for Australia in anything, but as soon as I started to play hockey, I realised that we actually did have a chance.
“We really put our hearts into underwater hockey over the last six years, and especially in the last year or so when it was the lead-up to the world championships; we worked really hard, so I’m grateful that we made it.”
The Cooktown athletes and their teammates went through months of intense training after their selection from the Australian Underwater Hockey Nationals Championships in Cairns earlier this year.
“We had training camps with our teams, where we would fly to the Gold Coast, to Perth, to Cairns, and we’d all meet up so we could play as a team for a few days; everyone was so spread out in Australia, so it was hard to get together regularly,” Sienna said.
“The training got quite intense; we did about four swims a week, three gym sessions and also playing underwater hockey leading up to worlds.
“It definitely paid off, because we all felt really fit, we felt capable, and we thought we did really well over there.”
Cooktown Crocs Underwater Hockey Club coach Scott Thomason said the competition was incredibly tight, with the difference between first and sixth place being within one goal.
“Overall, it was the best world results that Australia has ever done over the years,” he said.
“It’s been a really long preparation; they’ve trained so hard and they did little Cooktown proud.
“The experience was just unreal for them; playing in that sort of environment and that level of competition was just totally different to what they’re used to.
“They’ve made life-long friends and the Cooktown crew are already talking about worlds in 2026.”
The Australian under-19 men celebrate after scoring in double extra time during their quarter final clash against Great Britain. Photo: Matt Hoskins.
