Kookaburras captain Aran Zalewski has known as time on his worldwide hockey profession, forsaking a legacy that spanned 14 years and noticed him grow to be some of the embellished gamers of the fashionable period.
Fuelled by ardour and immense love for the game, Aran grew to become a triple Olympian and a daily captain with the facet, serving to the lads’s nationwide workforce 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 big position in my life for therefore lengthy,” Aran stated.
“Stepping away from a workforce that I like and have so many good reminiscences with is the rationale it’s laborious as a result of I look again with a lot gratitude, a lot fondness and a lot positivity.”
He concedes his resolution to retire following the Paris Olympic Video games didn’t come simple, as he weighed up his capability to proceed whereas juggling household and his long run profession.
“I actually tried to offer myself the absolute best probability to play in addition to I may 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 nicely.
“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 may, but additionally not the workforce and what it must maintain bettering, rising, and evolving.
“I’m at peace with that call and understanding that I can go away hockey and go away the Kookaburras a contented man. Although every thing in Paris didn’t go our means, I nonetheless look again on even that have with some positivity.”
After a dream debut in opposition to India at 19 years of age in Bunbury, simply over an hour from his hometown Margaret River, Aran quickly grew to become a constant, star midfielder for the Kookaburras.
“My journey with the Kookaburras is a mirrored image of the journey I took by way of 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 stay it for such a very long time,” he stated.
“I beloved the easy issues. I beloved getting a bunch of men collectively and making an attempt to perform one thing and having a standard purpose to do one thing collectively that we might keep in mind.”
Simply months earlier than his third Olympics in April 2024, Aran celebrated a fairytale, full-circle milestone he’ll all the time keep in mind, as he recorded his 250th cap for the Kookaburras in entrance of a packed dwelling crowd with household and mates in opposition to India on the Perth Worldwide Pageant of Hockey.
It wasn’t lengthy after this the captain loved a second he’ll always remember with the workforce.
“One second that I maintain very near my coronary heart was having the entire workforce down in Margaret River at my home for dinner,” he displays.
“It was the collaboration of two very large 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 evening extremely.
“After I look again on my complete expertise with the Kookaburras over 14 years, it positively formed me and it formed me into the person that that I’m right now and that I’m happy with.
“I couldn’t have gotten that have anyplace else, so I’m simply extremely grateful to everybody who performed a component in that journey.”