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The Australian Skate Company
Puckhandlers Roller Sports Stadium is the first dedicated
inline hockey rink built in Australia. Initially when we set out to start the
rink for 'hockey only' many of those involved said we were "Crazy". In
retrospect we were a bit nuts but luckily through a bit of hard work coupled
with some good luck we have managed to make the place a tremendous success. The
goal of the rink is to create a safe, fun, social atmosphere where kids and
parents can come to have a skate and enjoy our services. The rink is designed
for inline skating but the underlying goal is to create a bigger, better inline
hockey base. Each person who walks through the front door hears about inline
hockey one way or another. Inline Hockey is on the way to becoming a huge sport
in Australia and Puckhandlers Roller Sports Stadium enjoys being a central part
of it. The sport is growing everyday and has never been in a stronger position
than it is now. The present ILHV (Inline Hockey Victoria) executive committee is
excellent and with the help of Rodney DeBoos and Bruce Beatson , it will
continue to grow and prosper. If you, or anyone you know would like information
on inline hockey, contact the rink anytime and we will be more than happy to
assist you with all relevant details. The rink is also in the process of
developing a new sport 'Box Lacrosse'. The sport is huge internationally and
growing strongly in Australia.
The A S C - directors, Ross Fisher and Karl
Bryan.
Ross Fisher
 Ross has
a background in Aussie Rules football, playing 5 seasons with the Melbourne
Football Club. On his impressive dossier of sporting achievements is an AFL
Reserves Premiership. Since leaving football he has taken up a new sport, inline
hockey. Amazingly after starting the sport at the age of 33 he has managed to
carve himself quite an impressive inline hockey career, he is a dominant player
in the A grade competition, was the highest point scorer in A grade in '01 and
is the captain/coach of the defending champion Geelong Bisons. Ross is also a
stand out player in the Pro Hockey League for the Bauer Reservoir Dogs as an
enforcer and defensive forward. When his four children started playing with the
Eltham Eagles in 1995, Ross saw enormous potential in the sport and felt there
weren’t facilities available to compliment the players abilities (Maybe that is
because he was used to the MCG!).
He secured Sullivan Sports Centre, teamed up with Professional Hockey Coach Karl
Bryan, and the rest is history and we now have Puckhandlers Roller Sports
Stadium.
Karl Bryan
 Hailing
from Canada, Karl Bryan’s background is in marketing and ice/inline hockey. He
attended Red Deer University in Canada where he completed two years of Business
with a Grade Point Average of 3.3 (82%). He arrived in Australia in 1993 and
soon after started playing ice and inline hockey in Melbourne. After playing the
two he felt that inline hockey had enormous potential and helped form a new
club, The Phantoms. He transferred to the Kings so he could play with good mates
Johnny T and Jon Moses and organized for Ballistyx to sponsor the club, renaming
it The Ballistyx Bulldogs. He soon took on inline hockey full time and organized
inline hockey clinics and holiday hockey schools. The success of the schools led
to him traveling around Australia doing inline hockey camps, referees courses,
coaching clinics, and even goalie schools (if you have seen him playing goal
you’ll think this is amazing!). Since this time he and Rossco have launched the
Australian Skate Company and he now works out of the home base at Puckhandlers
Roller Sports Stadium. Karl has also developed a tournament serries in Australia
called the"Silver Cup'. These tournaments started three years ago with eight
teams and mis matched jerseys, it is now a major event on the Australian inline
hockey calendar. In 2001, 91 teams will have participated in a silver cup event!
Karl has an impressive hockey dossier, some of his recent achievements include,
highest point scorer at Australian Open Nationals three consecutive years
('98,'99,'00), a member of the Victorian National Champions seven consecutive
years (not losing a game during this time), highest point scorer of the
Australian Club Challenge '01, Most Assists award Australian Club Challenge '01,
highest point scorer Pro Hockey League '99,'01 as well as being Captain/Coach of
the reigning Champion Pro Hockey League Team the Bauer Reservoir Dogs.
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