By Glen Atwell
BEN Monckton is preparing to pull on the green and gold for the Australian floorball team.
The 16-year-old from Pakenham has been earmarked as one of Australia’s future floorballing stars and will travel to Switzerland this May to compete in the World Floorball Championships.
Monckton is the youngest in the team of 23 who will venture overseas for three weeks to battle it out against some of the world’s best floorball sides.
Switzerland is the home of floorball, the fastest growing indoor sport in the world that was introduced at the Pakenham Indoor Sports Centre in 1999.
Monckton was one of the first through the doors to try out the new sport that he described as ice hockey without the ice, or skates.
“The players don’t wear any padding and we use a hollow ball instead of a puck,” he said.
“The goalkeeper has to play on his knees.”
Monckton said the standard of play at the World Floorball Championships would be sky high.
“Japan is normally the hot contenders, they are a good side,” he said.
“But we (Australia) think we are in with a good chance.”
With teams such as Hungary, Norway, Singapore and Great Britain all vying for world glory, Monckton admits there could be a number of dark horses in the champions’ race.
“It is going to be tough, Switzerland have the home advantage and I’ve heard Singapore are a strong team too,” he said.
In the lead-up to the championships, Monckton is playing in the Australian Floorball Open, held at Mornington.
Monckton said he was looking forward to training with the Australian squad before the trip.
“It’s hard getting the entire team together because a lot of players are from interstate,” he said.
