Dunedin is currently hosting the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey Men’s and Women’s World Championship Division IIB Tournaments.
Men’s Ice Blacks Coach Cameron Frear joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to discuss their team's success so far and preview tonight’s clash against Iceland.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Wildgrave from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Ice Hockey Time. Now on the Ice under the Roof
in Dunedin, we go to the New Zealand Ice Black's
head coach came Free.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Good morning Cameron, Good morning mate, Cameron.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Frere, the ex player of the Stampede, the coach of
the Stampede, the coach of the Ice Blacks. What a
storied career in ice hockey. You're in the right place
at the World Champs, aren't you.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's really good to be here and
playing in Dunedin in front of home crowds.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's yeah, it's pretty exciting.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I've got to ask, what on earth Ice Hockey World
Champs doing in Duneda? Is that a strange question to ask,
But it doesn't appear to me to be something you'd
normally click in, like.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Yeah, it definitely hasn't been here for a for a
long time. We usually end up somewhere in Europe playing worlds,
but to have both, you know, the men's worlds and
the woman's worlds interned and is Yeah, it's been it's
been great for this for New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Ice hockey, when you look at the teams that are competing,
how did they come across this World Championship? What would
they have to do to win through to this event?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
So it's a five game round robins.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You play every other team once and you get three
points for a regular time win, two points for an
overtime win, one point for an overtime loss, and it's
the team that has the most amount of points after
those five games gets promoted to the next division.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Okay, so what division do you win? Because you were Bulgaria, Thailand, Chinese, Taipei,
Georgia and Iceland, how did you get to that level?
What level is that and what's ahead of you?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
So division we're in Division two B.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Division two A above us has the likes of Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Serbia.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, so that's the.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Division above us, and then we're in two B and
then so there's three A below us, which means that
whoever wins that division comes up to our comes up
to two B, and then whoever wins two B goes
up to two A.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So it's a promotion relegation every year.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, and the teams that are setting up at one
A and one B. What are we talking here? Canada?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Canada's it's in the top top division.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
But one A you have you have team teams that
go to the Olympics, a lot of those those powerhouse
ice hockey nations.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So what's above one A? What do they call that? One?
One one A? What's there? Top league?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
I don't even think it has a has a name,
it's just called it's just the World Champs. So I
think the sizes of the the top division depends on
whether it's a whether it's an Olympic year as well.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
How's the team going so far? I mean I've been
looking across the results. There's been some super tight, high
scoring games, some pretty lop sided one side games. Is
it going to form so far?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Came Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I think this World Champs has been has shown that
kind of any team can can push every team pretty closely.
You know, we were we had a very tight game
with TYPEI straight up, and then we met Georgia on
a good day where they beat us five. Now so yeah,
after that we've managed to beat Thailand seven to one.
(03:27):
So yeah, we've we've had a bit of a max
bag of results. But for us, you know, if we've
won all the remaining games, then we you know, we
we have a chance to either have silver or gold.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
As the coach in your role that you've been doing
for quite some time, what have you gleaned out of
the fixtures so far about? And this is difficult because
we say what your team has to do and how
they have to lift Because you know this a lot
of people out in New Zealand, they've got no idea
ice hockey work. So where are the areas that you
think you can lift? This side and Layman's language camera.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I think the biggest thing for us is we don't
spend a lot of time as a national team together.
We have a training camp of you know, five days
before Worlds, so it's it's quite a congested timeline to
be able to, I guess, get combinations together of lines
that play together and become familiar with each other.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So that's probably the biggest challenge we have.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
And having such a short turnaround and with a round
robin World Champs, you don't really have the ability to
drop many games if you're looking to be promoted and
win gold.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So what happens should you get to the top of this,
when's the next Championship promotion EVN Where does it go?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
So at the end of each so we're in the
all of the World Champs being played. They kind of
be played over this period. So after this, whoever becomes
first will get promoted to the division above and then
after that they go through a process where host cities
apply to host the.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
To the World Champs next year.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
So the world chair for next year would be the
same same timeframe but six So.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Is it every four years? You actually have a genuine
World champion? Is it every two years? How does that
roll through?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
So World Champs happens every year and then Olympics is
a little bit different, but yeah, in terms of double
HF Worlds, it happens every year.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
In April in May.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
We know it's not the cheapest sport to play, especially
for playing in New Zealand leagues because you've got to
travel all over the country and then gear is not either.
Do you get any money from sport end z Do
you guys got to fund yourselves?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
A lot of it is where we do get some
funding from at both like a national and regional regional level,
but a lot of the teams that we have, you know,
in terms of the ns at HL and funded by
either you know, the Auckland Ice Hockey or Queenstun Ice
Hockey Club and private sponsors. And you know players have
(06:03):
individual sponsors to cover their the cost of this season
because it is an expensive sport. Travel, equipment's very expensive
and just us time away from work as well, because
everyone is an amateur player here.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Get along take a watch if you're in Dunedin and
if you can't get to the need and you can
just get online Iceblacks dot co dot z and they
do indeed have a live stream for the fixture coming
up tonight Iceland taking on New Zealand. Get a monkst
camfre a great chat again mate, go well.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Hey, thanks mate, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
That's the coach of the ice Blacks cam Freer and
oh yeah a what's last night? They beat Bulgaria three
too well done. It's quite convoluted and difficult, but big sport.
Nice to cover it. Say, I love a bit of
ice you'd never played it. I have worn the equipment
in gold good move, just fell over.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Winner.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with us Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk set B on Saturday mornings
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Wildgrave from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Ice Hockey Time. Now on the Ice under the Roof
in Dunedin, we go to the New Zealand Ice Black's
head coach came Free.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Good morning Cameron, Good morning mate, Cameron.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Frere, the ex player of the Stampede, the coach of
the Stampede, the coach of the Ice Blacks. What a
storied career in ice hockey. You're in the right place
at the World Champs, aren't you.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's really good to be here and
playing in Dunedin in front of home crowds.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's yeah, it's pretty exciting.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I've got to ask, what on earth Ice Hockey World
Champs doing in Duneda? Is that a strange question to ask,
But it doesn't appear to me to be something you'd
normally click in, like.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Yeah, it definitely hasn't been here for a for a
long time. We usually end up somewhere in Europe playing worlds,
but to have both, you know, the men's worlds and
the woman's worlds interned and is Yeah, it's been it's
been great for this for New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Ice hockey, when you look at the teams that are competing,
how did they come across this World Championship? What would
they have to do to win through to this event?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
So it's a five game round robins.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You play every other team once and you get three
points for a regular time win, two points for an
overtime win, one point for an overtime loss, and it's
the team that has the most amount of points after
those five games gets promoted to the next division.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Okay, so what division do you win? Because you were Bulgaria, Thailand, Chinese, Taipei,
Georgia and Iceland, how did you get to that level?
What level is that and what's ahead of you?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
So division we're in Division two B.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Division two A above us has the likes of Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Serbia.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, so that's the.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Division above us, and then we're in two B and
then so there's three A below us, which means that
whoever wins that division comes up to our comes up
to two B, and then whoever wins two B goes
up to two A.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So it's a promotion relegation every year.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, and the teams that are setting up at one
A and one B. What are we talking here? Canada?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Canada's it's in the top top division.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
But one A you have you have team teams that
go to the Olympics, a lot of those those powerhouse
ice hockey nations.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So what's above one A? What do they call that? One?
One one A? What's there? Top league?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
I don't even think it has a has a name,
it's just called it's just the World Champs. So I
think the sizes of the the top division depends on
whether it's a whether it's an Olympic year as well.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
How's the team going so far? I mean I've been
looking across the results. There's been some super tight, high
scoring games, some pretty lop sided one side games. Is
it going to form so far?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Came Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I think this World Champs has been has shown that
kind of any team can can push every team pretty closely.
You know, we were we had a very tight game
with TYPEI straight up, and then we met Georgia on
a good day where they beat us five. Now so yeah,
after that we've managed to beat Thailand seven to one.
(03:27):
So yeah, we've we've had a bit of a max
bag of results. But for us, you know, if we've
won all the remaining games, then we you know, we
we have a chance to either have silver or gold.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
As the coach in your role that you've been doing
for quite some time, what have you gleaned out of
the fixtures so far about? And this is difficult because
we say what your team has to do and how
they have to lift Because you know this a lot
of people out in New Zealand, they've got no idea
ice hockey work. So where are the areas that you
think you can lift? This side and Layman's language camera.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I think the biggest thing for us is we don't
spend a lot of time as a national team together.
We have a training camp of you know, five days
before Worlds, so it's it's quite a congested timeline to
be able to, I guess, get combinations together of lines
that play together and become familiar with each other.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So that's probably the biggest challenge we have.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
And having such a short turnaround and with a round
robin World Champs, you don't really have the ability to
drop many games if you're looking to be promoted and
win gold.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So what happens should you get to the top of this,
when's the next Championship promotion EVN Where does it go?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
So at the end of each so we're in the
all of the World Champs being played. They kind of
be played over this period. So after this, whoever becomes
first will get promoted to the division above and then
after that they go through a process where host cities
apply to host the.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
To the World Champs next year.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
So the world chair for next year would be the
same same timeframe but six So.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Is it every four years? You actually have a genuine
World champion? Is it every two years? How does that
roll through?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
So World Champs happens every year and then Olympics is
a little bit different, but yeah, in terms of double
HF Worlds, it happens every year.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
In April in May.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
We know it's not the cheapest sport to play, especially
for playing in New Zealand leagues because you've got to
travel all over the country and then gear is not either.
Do you get any money from sport end z Do
you guys got to fund yourselves?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
A lot of it is where we do get some
funding from at both like a national and regional regional level,
but a lot of the teams that we have, you know,
in terms of the ns at HL and funded by
either you know, the Auckland Ice Hockey or Queenstun Ice
Hockey Club and private sponsors. And you know players have
(06:03):
individual sponsors to cover their the cost of this season
because it is an expensive sport. Travel, equipment's very expensive
and just us time away from work as well, because
everyone is an amateur player here.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Get along take a watch if you're in Dunedin and
if you can't get to the need and you can
just get online Iceblacks dot co dot z and they
do indeed have a live stream for the fixture coming
up tonight Iceland taking on New Zealand. Get a monkst
camfre a great chat again mate, go well.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Hey, thanks mate, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
That's the coach of the ice Blacks cam Freer and
oh yeah a what's last night? They beat Bulgaria three
too well done. It's quite convoluted and difficult, but big sport.
Nice to cover it. Say, I love a bit of
ice you'd never played it. I have worn the equipment
in gold good move, just fell over.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Winner.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with us Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk set B on Saturday mornings
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,
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