Adam David Commens (born 6 May 1976) is the brother of Scott Commens, is an Australian
field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shootin ...
coach and former player. He was born in
Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.
Commens was
nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
d ''Billy'' by his teammates, and earned 143 caps (20 goals) for Australia. He was a member of the team that won the bronze medal at the
2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...
in
Sydney.
Commens was named head coach of the
Belgium national field hockey team on 4 July 2007. He was coach and a key player of the Royal Antwerp Hockey Club (RAHC). His assistant was
Murray Richards.
Commens became coach of the
Australia women's team at the start of 2011. When he took over as coach, he dropped five experienced players from the national squad:
Kate Hollywood,
Fiona Johnson
Fiona Johnson (born 12 April 1983) is an Australian field hockey player.
Johnson was selected to represent Australia in the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008. She injured her left hamstring during a warm-up match versus China and therefore did no ...
,
Alison Bruce,
Shelly Liddelow and
Amy Korner.
His contract was terminated by Hockey Australia in 2016 after their investigation into allegations that Commens "had engaged in behaviour amounting to serious misconduct". It was reported to have involved Commens exposing himself and making lewd remarks to some squad members during the Rio Olympics.
Since the Rio Olympic Games, Commens has been appointed as the High Performance Director of the Belgian Hockey Federation and won Belgium's first ever World Cup in 2018.
References
External links
*
Profile on Hockey Australia
1976 births
Living people
Australian male field hockey players
Male field hockey midfielders
Australian field hockey coaches
Field hockey players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Olympic field hockey players of Australia
Olympic bronze medalists for Australia
Olympic medalists in field hockey
Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
1998 Men's Hockey World Cup players
2002 Men's Hockey World Cup players
Sportspeople from Wagga Wagga
Commonwealth Games medallists in field hockey
Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia
Field hockey players at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
Australian Olympic coaches
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