The biggest news for the sport of hockey in the last month was the announcement that field hockey would be cut from the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
This, unfortunately, wasn’t a surprise for Great Britain and England Hockey midfielder David Goodfield but admitted he could understand why the sport was cut.
“I really wanted to play in another [games], but I could understand why it got axed because it was going to be reduced games and the financial cost to host hockey was too much. But I do think it’s really disappointing.”
Goodfield and England had a great tournament in the 2022 Games, winning bronze in Birmingham. England came second in Pool B behind India, only on goal difference, which put them straight into the semi-finals.
They faced Australia in that match but lost out 3-2. In their bronze medal match, they dominated South Africa to comfortably win 6-3. Goodfield played all the games during the tournament, as well as representing England at the Gold Coast at the 2018 Games but acknowledged how it must feel for players who haven’t played in a Commonwealth Games as of yet.
Goodfield representing England during the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“All the guys that this would potentially be their first Commonwealth Games, and now they’re going to miss out on that. That’s pretty tough for them, especially thinking about the experiences that I’ve had with it,” Goodfield said.
“It wasn’t particularly surprising, but also at the same time for me, I’ve been lucky enough to go to the Gold Coast and Birmingham and both of those experiences have been some of my fondest memories in hockey.”
During the 2022 games, England faced India, Wales, Canada and Ghana during the pool stage. Goodfield admitted that whilst the quality of the game may not be the same as in the FIH Pro League Games and Olympics, it’s still a fantastic experience being around athletes of different sports.
“It’s not the highest quality. We probably have four teams really competing for the medals, maybe five. But the actual whole experience of multi-sport games, being around loads of different athletes, all that kind of stuff and everything that comes with playing for Team England, it’s quite a special feeling and quite a special moment.”
Goodfield concluded by saying “Unfortunately, the tournament’s just lacking funding, lacking countries wanting to host it. It’ll be interesting to see where that goes over the next few years.”
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