Starting in 2009, the SA Hockey Association has stipulated that each team must supply one umpire. Since a small minority of players have suggested that this idea is crap, we can assume that a majority of players think it's a good idea. (Ref: "Application of Paradoxical Statistical Analysis - Proof that Climate Change is Hogwash" by G.W. Bush.) Umpiring a team from your own club is pretty good. They look around in frustration and bow their heads to gracefully get on with the game when they realise you're one of them. Everyone should umpire at least once or twice each season. It is excellent experience to see what it's like to be behind the whistle.

There have been some rule changes introduced for 2009. We'll leave the final analysis to the end of the year shall we? In the not too distant future, we hope to list a summary of those changes on this page. In the meantime, you might like to take a look at the document FIH Rules of Hockey 2009 for a complete dossier on the subject of hockey rules. For those oldies who can't read because they slipped through the cracks of our leaking school system before Rudd came along with his education revolution, you might like to take a look at the following video (by some chap from University of New South Wales).