I know you mentioned all the difficulties and all the problems, but what are some of the things that are happening now that are... really pushing the needle in the right direction.

Well, one of the things, obviously, it's really difficult when you're a cult sport, and that's basically what ice hockey is here in this country.

You know, AFL and rugby and cricket and soccer are the main sports sports.

a big sport here so i think it you need to have quality people and no disrespect to anybody that's involved in ice hockey here because everybody matters ice hockey in this country is as i mentioned a cult sport but more importantly it's a community very much so like a family When you deal with that, you have ma's and pa's, coaches, you have them volunteering their time and energy.

And it's difficult because a sport built on volunteers is always difficult because you need to have people that are knowledgeable in the game.

And so I think that's been a challenge for ice hockey in Australia, that it's taken so long a time for it to become a mainstream sport, that it's been built on volunteers.

And again, no disrespect to them, they're very well needed, but you need really good guidance.

Yeah.

Can you just kind of touch on the real experience that the Ice Hockey Classic is and what its real aim to achieve is?

Well, thank you.

I think people kind of obviously forget that the NHL is the pinnacle.

Everybody wants to strive to get there.

Winning the gold medal is another one of those dreams that we all have.

You know, being a young boy of college.

three when I first originally started to skate and once I started to understand what the game was about my mother was a figure skater or sorry a speed skater actually and and she brought me out to this great game in Winnipeg I think was minus 30 below and you know snot all over the place frozen tears out of the eyes and I fell in love with the game a very long time ago and And I think you'll see all these guys have that same passion.

Gooch, those moments are pretty special, eh?