Brisbane Blitz

Brisbane Blitz
Brisbane Blitz
City	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
League	Australian Junior Ice Hockey League
Founded	2 September 2015
Home arena	Iceworld Acacia Ridge
Colours	(2015–16) ; ; (2016–present) ;
Owner(s)	Ice Hockey Queensland
General manager	Jacinta Santilli
Head coach	Darryl Dunsford
Franchise history
2015–present	Brisbane Blitz
Championships
Regular season titles	0
AJIHL Championships	0
	Current season

The Brisbane Blitz are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Brisbane, Queensland playing in the second tier of the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League referred to as AJIHL Tier 2. They represent the first junior ice hockey team from Queensland as part of the proposed 2nd expansion of the AJIHL, which is the most elite level for ice hockey at a national level for ages between 16–20 years old.

Team history

At the beginning of the 2015–16 AJIHL season, a proposal for the next expansion in the AJIHL was made by Ice Hockey Australia to include teams from the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. A Wild Card entry was created in the AJIHL playoffs structure but no further public information would be made available for months but plans to form junior teams in each of these states was underway.^[1]

On 2 September 2015 a public announcement was made via the Southern Stars Ice Hockey of the decision to include a Queensland team as part of a new AJIHL Tier 2 competition. The first proposed games were to take place in Sydney on 5–6 December 2015. The team would undergo a 4-week training and development clinic, at the Acacia Ridge ice rink, run by Con Dionissiou (Ice Hockey Queensland President) and Darryl Dunsford (Southern Stars President) in September 2015.^{[citation needed]}

The Brisbane Blitz began by playing their first exhibition game under the name Brisbane AJIHL at 5:15 pm on 12 December 2015 against a Brisbane All Stars team consisting of Southern Stars Ice Hockey players and Boondall Buccaneers players. The game was played at Iceworld Olympic Ice Rink in Boondall.^[2]

The Brisbane Blitz played in Canberra at the first AJIHL Tier 2 tournament in January 2016 against Canberra Junior Brave and Adelaide Generals. The Blitz won this tournament and therefore were selected as a Wild Card in the Tier 1 Finals which are being held 27–28 February 2016.

On 20 November 2016 the Brisbane Blitz team was selected for the 2016-17 AJIHL season, where the team would join regular season competition for the first time. Blitz goaltender Imogen Perry became the first female to play in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League on 17 December 2016. The 16-year-old faced 38 shots on goal against the previous years champion Sydney Sabres, winning 7 – 1 in her debut.^{[citation needed]}

The first team in club history:

#	Name	Pos	Shoots	Date of Birth	Acquired	Reference
3	Mitchell Henning	F	Right	2 November 1997	2015	[1]
4	Nick Scanlan	D	Left	17 January 1997	2015	[2]
8	Lachlan Tripp	D	Left	6 February 1999	2015	[3]
10	Conar Peace	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[4]
11	Damon de Ryck	F	Right	11 September 1997	2015	[5]
12	Matthew de Beer	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[6]
13	Leon Coleman	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[7]
14	John Kenderdine	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[8]
15	Luke Moore	D	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[9]
20	Harley Anderson	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[10]
21	Vaughan Lok Christie	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[11]
22	Brandon Brotton	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[12]
33	Matthew Wray	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[13]
35	Henri Mousset	F	Right	21 June 1999	2015	[14]
76	Isaac Norris	D	Left	21 April 1998	2015	[15]
58	Luke Murphy	F	Right	3 June 1996	2015	[16]
97	Anthony Santilli	F	Right	6 May 1997	2015	[17]
98	Matt Gilpin	F	Right	30 November 1999	2015	[18]
1	Joe Moore	G	Right	25 January 1997	2015	[19]

Players

Captains

2015–16 Mitchell Henning (C), Luke Moore (A), Harley Anderson (A)
2016–17 Mitchell Henning (C), Matthew Gilpin (A), Harley Anderson (A)

Head coaches

The first Head Coach for the Brisbane Blitz was Con Dionissiou.

2015–16 Con Dionissiou
2016–17 Darryl Dunsford

References

^ "League Schedule". Ice Hockey Australia. 1 March 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
^ "ATTN: Registered players born from 1995 – 1999". Ice Hockey Queensland. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.

[AJIHL_Expansion-1] "League Schedule". Ice Hockey Australia. 1 March 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.

[BrisbaneBlitzExhibitionGame-2] "ATTN: Registered players born from 1995 – 1999". Ice Hockey Queensland. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.

[1]

[2]