Kookaburras captain Aran Zalewski has known as time on his worldwide hockey profession, forsaking a legacy that spanned 14 years and noticed him change into one of the embellished gamers of the trendy period.
Fuelled by ardour and immense love for the game, Aran turned a triple Olympian and a daily captain with the aspect, serving to the boys’s nationwide staff to an Olympic silver medal in 2020, a World Cup title, two Champions Trophy titles and three Commonwealth Video games gold medals in 268 appearances.
“The Kookaburras have performed such a major position in my life for therefore lengthy,” Aran mentioned.
“Stepping away from a staff that I like and have so many good recollections with is the rationale it’s exhausting as a result of I look again with a lot gratitude, a lot fondness and a lot positivity.”
He concedes his choice to retire following the Paris Olympic Video games didn’t come simple, as he weighed up his means to proceed whereas juggling household and his long run profession.
“I actually tried to offer myself the very best probability to play in addition to I might on the Olympics this yr, and I felt like I used to be in actually good condition, I used to be mentally actually ready to play effectively.
“I questioned if I’m persevering with to develop as a lot as I did over these 14 years as a Kookaburra and after I considered that, I felt like I wasn’t serving myself in addition to I might, but additionally not the staff and what it must preserve bettering, rising, and evolving.
“I’m at peace with that call and figuring out that I can depart hockey and depart the Kookaburras a contented man. Although every part in Paris didn’t go our approach, I nonetheless look again on even that have with some positivity.”
After a dream debut towards India at 19 years of age in Bunbury, simply over an hour from his hometown Margaret River, Aran quickly turned a constant, star midfielder for the Kookaburras.
“My journey with the Kookaburras is a mirrored image of the journey I took by my life and rising up in Margaret River as a child with a dream and I used to be fortunate sufficient to comply with that dream and get to dwell it for such a very long time,” he mentioned.
“I beloved the easy issues. I beloved getting a bunch of men collectively and attempting to perform one thing and having a standard aim to do one thing collectively that we’d bear in mind.”
Simply months earlier than his third Olympics in April 2024, Aran celebrated a fairytale, full-circle milestone he’ll at all times bear in mind, as he recorded his 250th cap for the Kookaburras in entrance of a packed dwelling crowd with household and pals towards India on the Perth Worldwide Competition of Hockey.
It wasn’t lengthy after this the captain loved a second he’ll always remember with the staff.
“One second that I maintain very near my coronary heart was having the entire staff down in Margaret River at my home for dinner,” he displays.
“It was the collaboration of two very huge elements of my life, my household and the Kookaburras, and having all of them collectively in a single place was very particular. I loved that night time extremely.
“Once I look again on my entire expertise with the Kookaburras over 14 years, it positively formed me and it formed me into the person that that I’m immediately and that I’m pleased with.
“I couldn’t have gotten that have wherever else, so I’m simply extremely grateful to everybody who performed an element in that journey.”
