March 5, 2026 • 7 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Mix one oh four point nine.
Now we have just been told we are going to
be catching up with the Northern Territory Chief Minister Leafanochiro
in about ten minutes time, so we'll be catching up
with her to find out more about this situation when
it comes to flooding across the top end. But look,
if you were listening to the Week that was and
to the show earlier in the week, we know the
big news that will annoyed a lot of Territorians was
(00:22):
that Air Asia has pulled the pin on Darwin to
Bali as well as Darwin to kl and it's now
causing some headaches for Hockey NTA and the Territory Stinger's
Malaysian campaign. Joining us in the studio is Jason Butcher,
the chief executive of Hockey nt Good morning, Botch.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
How are you very well? Mate? When did you guys
find out that air Asia was pulling the pin.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We got a sort of off the record heads up
about twenty four hours before actually went public, so probably
similar timelines as everybody else.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, I mean, what was your reaction. I'm assuming a
few colorful words. We've not say those on the radio,
but disappointment.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Definitely disappointment, but we have a mentality of these things happen,
so it was like, Okay, how are we going to
solve this out? Our biggest challenge was we've been waiting
for the Malaysian Hockey League schedule, which is late because
of their World Cup qualifiers, so we're literally booking things
as this happened, which has thrown all of that work
into disarray, significant extra costs, all the direct flights gone,
(01:27):
so the logistics around getting our athletes in and out
and the cost stuff as sort of lander on our
head at the worst possible timing.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So tell me, you know, and for our listeners, like
how often are you heading across to Malaysia and what
kind of logistical nightmare does this create?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So we play a ten week season, we candense it
into two and a half three weeks so that it's
viable for our players with time off work and so forth.
So generally we fly in as one big group for
that period. We've now been told midstream as well from
Malaysian Hockey Confederation, from their major sponsor, the men's league
will have to go back in October to play finals,
(02:09):
so they may expanding their league. So it's successful, but
that creates another new problem for us because that was
not planned for, nots trip across for our men. So
and then we have some athletes that come in and
out different timings offset because availability of work. So we're
managing two squads of twenty five over originally two trips,
(02:31):
but now it'll be three.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So that's the mens and women's squads.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, so our trip in May will be taking fifty
eight people across KO.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, that's a lot of people and a lot of
people logistically, but also financially.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, obviously financially, and we were getting better with our planning,
great support from the government and the Air Asia thing
that they put in play, so things were looking better
and better. So not to be for this one.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, it is. Look, it makes things tough. If there's
one thing I've learned about you after interviewing you over
the last couple of years, but that you're not a
You're a can do person. So I would imagine that
you're trying to work out ways that you can still
make this happen because really, you know, you've got all
these territorians that really want to be able to go
across and get these opportunities.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, look, we made decisions as a sport ten years
ago that we're only just recovering from now. And what
they probably didn't understand at the time, and what we've
learned and we believe in is without aspiration an opportunity,
then your sport slowly dies. And so these things have
been significant parts of our junior resurrection, just the whole
energy in our hockey community and the support we get
(03:40):
around that. And so it's I get it, it's really difficult,
and I get why some people opt out and go, well,
it's not viable, but for us, the alternative isn't viable either,
So we just got to get it done.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So how's this going to look? You're going to maybe
be catching flights then hiring a big buss. What is
going to happen?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, the toll will go back on the athletes with flights,
layover periods, logistics for our staff to figure out fifty
eight people. So we've got decentralized athletes playing in other
countries and six of the other states and territories, so
we've got to bring them all into kl around the
same time for our first game. Both our men's and
women's games are an hour and a half out of
(04:18):
KL so they love having us there, but they don't
really design it to help us be successful.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, yeah, I get your name.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
So it's really going to fall back onto the athletes
with and our staff to organize some really complex logistics
and some poor travel arrangements.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So you're thinking that you might have to fly from
here to Singapore first, into State first.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's any geese, It depends on where they're coming from,
but most likely our core groups, especially the biggest group,
which is our dawn contingent, will probably have to drive
back to Singapore after our last game that night. So
let's say let's say the girls play their final on
the seventeenth, they win, we get on a coach bus,
we drive through the border back to seat a poor
(05:00):
and then we fly at and get home at like
nine o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Just how big an impact is this going to have
on managing the budget?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeahs significant. It's significant, and of course we plan for contingencies,
so it will hurt and will be hard to stay
on budget. But the biggest thing is the lessons we
learned last year was that we have to not just
get there, find a way to get there and be there.
We have to find a way to improve our performance,
and so we're trying to invest in our people, the
(05:28):
welfare of our athletes, better support for our staff who
are trying to be success, all those things. So the
first thing goes from budgets is all of that gets
taken out to try and stay close to budget, which
is going to be really challenging.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
It's going to be tough. You know. If there's one
silver lining, I've seen you announce the squads and they
look like they are really strong.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, the women's squad will come out in the next
few days. We're waiting on the Black Sticks program. You
have got an invitation which I can't talk about, so
the timing of getting that. But our men's squad is
probably the strongest squad ptent we've ever had. So we've
got the back end of our golden generation who are
fit and healthy and committed. We've got this new group
of aspirational or ambitious people that have never had a
(06:11):
shot at this, and then we've got all these kids
that are getting better. In this environment, we believe we
can win. It's going to be almost impossible because of
all the logistics, nine games, fourteen days, all the travel,
I'm going to say hostile environment again. They certainly don't
try and help us win, but we believe we can
do it, and we've been preparing from our learnings from
(06:31):
last year to get that done.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Everyone in the Northern Territory loves a good underdog story.
You'd have to say when you're having to catch buses, trains, planes,
and automobiles just to get to a game, that you're
the underdog in that sense, don't you reckon?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I think this team is unique in world sport. Every
element of underdog is who we are, but we've historically
shown what we can do with that situation. I guess
this is a really committed group that understand what's at
stake and what it can mean for our future. Proud
of them, but I also I believe that they can
get this done.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Well. It sounds as so you are going to be
doing what you can, anything you can to make sure
that this still happens and to make sure that those
men's and women's teams play, you know, to the best
of their abilities. So I think it's going to be
exciting to watch once they finally get out on the
on the field. It'll be interesting to see how it
all goes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Look, and the community and government and our partners have
been super supportive. They believe in the mission as well,
and it has become almost a crusade slash mission because
of the level of difficulty. But yeah, we're excited to
try and deal with those challenges as well. That's part
of who we are as well.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah. Well, Jason Butcher, the Hockey and T chief executive,
always appreciate your time. Thank you very much for joining us,
and no doubt we'll talk to you again over the
coming months to hear more about you know, how things
are tracking and well hate getting over there and how
it'll all work. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
We'll get it done, yeah you will.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Thank you.
You are listening to Mix one oh four point nine.
Now we have just been told we are going to
be catching up with the Northern Territory Chief Minister Leafanochiro
in about ten minutes time, so we'll be catching up
with her to find out more about this situation when
it comes to flooding across the top end. But look,
if you were listening to the Week that was and
to the show earlier in the week, we know the
big news that will annoyed a lot of Territorians was
(00:22):
that Air Asia has pulled the pin on Darwin to
Bali as well as Darwin to kl and it's now
causing some headaches for Hockey NTA and the Territory Stinger's
Malaysian campaign. Joining us in the studio is Jason Butcher,
the chief executive of Hockey nt Good morning, Botch.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
How are you very well? Mate? When did you guys
find out that air Asia was pulling the pin.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We got a sort of off the record heads up
about twenty four hours before actually went public, so probably
similar timelines as everybody else.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, I mean, what was your reaction. I'm assuming a
few colorful words. We've not say those on the radio,
but disappointment.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Definitely disappointment, but we have a mentality of these things happen,
so it was like, Okay, how are we going to
solve this out? Our biggest challenge was we've been waiting
for the Malaysian Hockey League schedule, which is late because
of their World Cup qualifiers, so we're literally booking things
as this happened, which has thrown all of that work
into disarray, significant extra costs, all the direct flights gone,
(01:27):
so the logistics around getting our athletes in and out
and the cost stuff as sort of lander on our
head at the worst possible timing.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So tell me, you know, and for our listeners, like
how often are you heading across to Malaysia and what
kind of logistical nightmare does this create?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So we play a ten week season, we candense it
into two and a half three weeks so that it's
viable for our players with time off work and so forth.
So generally we fly in as one big group for
that period. We've now been told midstream as well from
Malaysian Hockey Confederation, from their major sponsor, the men's league
will have to go back in October to play finals,
(02:09):
so they may expanding their league. So it's successful, but
that creates another new problem for us because that was
not planned for, nots trip across for our men. So
and then we have some athletes that come in and
out different timings offset because availability of work. So we're
managing two squads of twenty five over originally two trips,
(02:31):
but now it'll be three.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So that's the mens and women's squads.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, so our trip in May will be taking fifty
eight people across KO.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, that's a lot of people and a lot of
people logistically, but also financially.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, obviously financially, and we were getting better with our planning,
great support from the government and the Air Asia thing
that they put in play, so things were looking better
and better. So not to be for this one.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, it is. Look, it makes things tough. If there's
one thing I've learned about you after interviewing you over
the last couple of years, but that you're not a
You're a can do person. So I would imagine that
you're trying to work out ways that you can still
make this happen because really, you know, you've got all
these territorians that really want to be able to go
across and get these opportunities.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, look, we made decisions as a sport ten years
ago that we're only just recovering from now. And what
they probably didn't understand at the time, and what we've
learned and we believe in is without aspiration an opportunity,
then your sport slowly dies. And so these things have
been significant parts of our junior resurrection, just the whole
energy in our hockey community and the support we get
(03:40):
around that. And so it's I get it, it's really difficult,
and I get why some people opt out and go, well,
it's not viable, but for us, the alternative isn't viable either,
So we just got to get it done.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So how's this going to look? You're going to maybe
be catching flights then hiring a big buss. What is
going to happen?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, the toll will go back on the athletes with flights,
layover periods, logistics for our staff to figure out fifty
eight people. So we've got decentralized athletes playing in other
countries and six of the other states and territories, so
we've got to bring them all into kl around the
same time for our first game. Both our men's and
women's games are an hour and a half out of
(04:18):
KL so they love having us there, but they don't
really design it to help us be successful.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, yeah, I get your name.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
So it's really going to fall back onto the athletes
with and our staff to organize some really complex logistics
and some poor travel arrangements.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So you're thinking that you might have to fly from
here to Singapore first, into State first.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's any geese, It depends on where they're coming from,
but most likely our core groups, especially the biggest group,
which is our dawn contingent, will probably have to drive
back to Singapore after our last game that night. So
let's say let's say the girls play their final on
the seventeenth, they win, we get on a coach bus,
we drive through the border back to seat a poor
(05:00):
and then we fly at and get home at like
nine o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Just how big an impact is this going to have
on managing the budget?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeahs significant. It's significant, and of course we plan for contingencies,
so it will hurt and will be hard to stay
on budget. But the biggest thing is the lessons we
learned last year was that we have to not just
get there, find a way to get there and be there.
We have to find a way to improve our performance,
and so we're trying to invest in our people, the
(05:28):
welfare of our athletes, better support for our staff who
are trying to be success, all those things. So the
first thing goes from budgets is all of that gets
taken out to try and stay close to budget, which
is going to be really challenging.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
It's going to be tough. You know. If there's one
silver lining, I've seen you announce the squads and they
look like they are really strong.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, the women's squad will come out in the next
few days. We're waiting on the Black Sticks program. You
have got an invitation which I can't talk about, so
the timing of getting that. But our men's squad is
probably the strongest squad ptent we've ever had. So we've
got the back end of our golden generation who are
fit and healthy and committed. We've got this new group
of aspirational or ambitious people that have never had a
(06:11):
shot at this, and then we've got all these kids
that are getting better. In this environment, we believe we
can win. It's going to be almost impossible because of
all the logistics, nine games, fourteen days, all the travel,
I'm going to say hostile environment again. They certainly don't
try and help us win, but we believe we can
do it, and we've been preparing from our learnings from
(06:31):
last year to get that done.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Everyone in the Northern Territory loves a good underdog story.
You'd have to say when you're having to catch buses, trains, planes,
and automobiles just to get to a game, that you're
the underdog in that sense, don't you reckon?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I think this team is unique in world sport. Every
element of underdog is who we are, but we've historically
shown what we can do with that situation. I guess
this is a really committed group that understand what's at
stake and what it can mean for our future. Proud
of them, but I also I believe that they can
get this done.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Well. It sounds as so you are going to be
doing what you can, anything you can to make sure
that this still happens and to make sure that those
men's and women's teams play, you know, to the best
of their abilities. So I think it's going to be
exciting to watch once they finally get out on the
on the field. It'll be interesting to see how it
all goes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Look, and the community and government and our partners have
been super supportive. They believe in the mission as well,
and it has become almost a crusade slash mission because
of the level of difficulty. But yeah, we're excited to
try and deal with those challenges as well. That's part
of who we are as well.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah. Well, Jason Butcher, the Hockey and T chief executive,
always appreciate your time. Thank you very much for joining us,
and no doubt we'll talk to you again over the
coming months to hear more about you know, how things
are tracking and well hate getting over there and how
it'll all work. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
We'll get it done, yeah you will.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Thank you.
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