Aotearoa hockey will hit an intriguing checkpoint at the Commonwealth Games as the blokes and wahine tournaments deliver a solid assessment of kiwi hockey. Both Black Sticks teams will return to the regular schedule of international hockey events after a couple years stuck in the abyss and despite that niggle, both teams will be hunting for medals.

Both teams should win medals. Apart from Australia's freaky excellence at hockey, the best teams in the hockey world don't tick enough colonization boxes to compete at the Commonwealth Games. Both teams will be competing for medals with Australia, England and India while both tournaments feature six other teams. Hopefully a team or two emerges from the other six teams to shake things up, however either event can be simmered down to four teams competing for three medals.

When these events were last held, Aotearoa won a gold medal on the wahine side and silver for the blokes. Given that neither Aotearoa team has defeated Australia in 22 games (blokes and wahine combined) since the start of 2021, suggesting that Aotearoa can get a win over Australia either in pool play or in a medal-game is hopeful. Defeating Australia is all about winning a gold medal though and Aotearoa can enjoy strong tournaments without hitting that marker.

Black Sticks wahine are more likely to win a medal than the blokes. The women's team finished 5th at the recent World Cup and showed fresh attacking intrigue as reason for optimism, although this wasn’t parlayed into a quarter-final win. Aotearoa's first pocket of games this weekend are against Kenya and Scotland.

The blokes have a similar draw, facing Scotland and Pakistan. Aotearoa should emerge from this phase with two wins for the blokes and wahine. Australia will be waiting for both teams after that opening stanza and South Africa will be the last opponent for Aotearoa in pool play. The top two teams qualify for semi-finals and kiwi hockey fans should expect this as a baseline result, with India or England likely to be waiting for both Aotearoa teams in the semi-finals.

Black Sticks wahine have a funky group of young attackers to keep tabs on. Olivia Merry leads the attacking unit and her steady style is complimented by the likes of Olivia Shannon, Hope Ralph, Rose Tynan and Tyler Lench. That’s boosted by Katie Doar pushing forward in a creative role. This was on display at the World Cup, against the best teams in the world and should generate plenty of attacking highlights in the first two games.

Hugo Inglis is always mandatory viewing for the blokes and he is capable of slotting into the best teams around the world. Easier games at the start of this tournament will likely involve lots of Inglis highlights, while also providing space to ease blokes like Inglis, Kane Russell and Blair Tarrant into the tournament. There is decent gap between the best players and squad members providing depth, so having someone like Inglis on the field as much as possible will be crucial to Aotearoa's success. That will be less important to start the tournament; burning these blokes out early in the tournament doesn't seem wise.

These two tournaments are perfectly set up to help lay out an Aotearoa hockey vibe moving forward. Lots of games against Australia skew recent results and a results summary doesn't look flash for either team since the start of 2021. The women’s team enjoyed a decent World Cup campaign and will be fizzing to back up their World Cup mahi, while the blokes will be eager to get back into an international hockey grind. Both teams will want medals and should get medals, but that starts with a fun little phase of easier games.

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