When Blake Govers became interested in hockey, few could have predicted that he would go onto become one of the Kookaburras' greatest attacking weapons.
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A product of a hockey-obsessed family, Blake was destined to pick up the stick from a tender age, and he was around four when he started joining his older siblings for practise at a nearby field in Keiraville.
However, the future Kookaburra was always far more interested in stopping goals than scoring them, propping himself up in goals as his brothers took shot after shot.
The game changer came around eight years later when Blake started to master the drag flick, which helped turn him into a strike weapon in attack. It was a move inspired by his older brother Kieran, who represented his country at the time.
More than a decade later, that drag flick continues to serve Blake well. It was on show during the 26-year-old's outstanding Commonwealth Games campaign, with the Illawarra talent scoring seven goals on his way to the Kookaburras clinching the gold medal.
Blake capped a great time in Birmingham by scoring the Australia's opening goal in their 7-0 mauling of India in the final on Monday night.
He becomes the second Govers brother to win Comm Games gold, after Kieran achieved the feat in 2014.
Kieran, whose own career was cut short four years ago due to a series of injuries, said Blake always had potential to be a special player.
"It was about 30 steps to the hockey field from our back gate growing up, so we were always down there," Kieran told the Mercury.
"Blake wanted to be a goalkeeper so he padded up. We always took the spare kit home from our club and he'd pad up, and we'd go train every afternoon. It wasn't probably until he was 13 or 14 that he was above the rest in his age group, with that unique drag flick, especially because I was doing it around the time he was watching me play. I just had to rein him back a bit because I've gone through a fair share of injuries during my career due to drag flicking.
"Obviously he then matured and he grew, and his body went as well. And you look at him now, he's defined himself as his own player. It's good that I was able to touch on it when I was younger, but he's made his own path and it's been good to watch."
Victory in Birmingham was the fairytale finish for Blake, who cruelly missed out on securing gold with the Kookaburras four years ago.
Blake was set to make his Comm Games debut on the Gold Coast when disaster struck the night before game one, with a rogue ball at training breaking his hand.
But redemption came in 2022, as Blake - along with Wollongong's Flynn Ogilvie - played a key role in Australia's unbeaten campaign. The Kookas have now won gold at every Games since men's field hockey was introduced in 1998.
"They played pretty exceptional [in the final]. They converted their chances early, which put them on the back foot straight away," Kieran said. "Blake played well this tournament. Obviously he's one of the strike powers in the team, so he'd be pretty stoked that he was able to get one [a goal] in the final, and get the ball rolling.
"It's probably been hard for Blake though. He's one of the most experienced strikers in that team, so a lot of weight is on his shoulders, but he's handled himself well considering he's still young."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
