The Adelaide Rush is an Australian amateur

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team from

Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. Founded in 2005 as the Adelaide Assassins, the Rush, who were also known as the Adrenaline for four years, have been a member of the

Australian Women's Ice Hockey League The Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL) is Australia's top-tier women's ice hockey league. Established in 2005 as Australia's first women's national league, the AWIHL has Amateur sports, amateur status and is sanctioned by Ice Hockey Au ...

(AWIHL) since inception in 2007. The Rush are based at the

Adelaide Ice Arena The Ice Arena (stylised as IceArenA), formerly Snowdome and Mt Thebarton Snow and Ice, is an ice sports and public skate centre, located in Thebarton, Adelaide, South Australia. The centre is the home of the Ice Factor Foundation Inc and the ...

in the central suburb of

Thebarton Thebarton ( ), formerly Theberton, on Kaurna land, is an inner-western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of West Torrens. The suburb is bounded by the River Torrens to the north, Port Road and Bonython Park to the east, Kintore St ...

in Adelaide. The team has won six Joan McKowen trophies and are three time league premiers.

History

Pre-AWIHL

The Adelaide Rush were founded in 2005 as the Adelaide Assassins. The team joined the National Women's Program Showcase Series announced by

Ice Hockey Australia The Australian Ice Hockey Federation, currently trading as Ice Hockey Australia (IHA), is the official national governing body of ice hockey in Australia and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was first established in 1 ...

in 2005. The Showcase series would be an opportunity to build up to establishing a fully-fledged national women's league. Adelaide competed in the two Showcase Series in 2006 and 2007. In early 2006, the Assassins appointed the Australian U18 national team assistant coach, Pier Martin, as their inaugural head coach for the 2006 Showcase Series. Adelaide selected thirteen players in their first roster, including at least seven Australian internationals in Lucy Parrington, Jodie Walker, Serena Yu, Mel McLaren, Tash Farrier, Candice Mitchell and Tamra Jones. The first Showcase began in February 2006 with five teams, Adelaide Assassins, Sydney Sirens,

Brisbane Goannas The Brisbane Goannas are in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League. The team is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Goannas Women’s Ice Hockey Club (GWIHC) is a non-profit incorporated association, governed by a volunteer manage ...

, Canberra Ice Caps and Melbourne Flames. Adelaide won the first Showcase Series, finishing top of the standings with 18 points from 12 games, defeating the Sirens by four points to the title. In the second Showcase Series in 2006-07, the Assassins went undefeated to win the Showcase back-to-back. Adelaide was the first team to lift the West Lakes Trophy in 2007, which had been donated by Westlakes Trophies and Framing to the National Women's Program. The Assassins closest game in the second Showcase was a 6-4 victory over the Sydney Sirens on 11 February 2007.

AWIHL

The newly formed

had its inaugural season in the 2007–08 season, where the Adelaide Assassins would again win the championship. At this time the championship trophy awarded to the winners of the finals was the West Lakes Trophy, made by Westlakes Trophies and Framing. On August 8, 2011, the Adelaide Assassins merged with the Adelaide Adrenaline ice hockey club. The move was made to increase the exposure of women's hockey in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

with the help of associating with an already well known brand with which they could share resources with. Before the 2016 season began, the Adrenaline were re branded as Adelaide Rush.

Club identity

Adelaide Assassins (2005-11)

The Assassins were founded with a red, black and white colour scheme. The team's

uniforms A uniform is a variety of costume worn by members of an organization while usually participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency ser ...

were prodomantly red with black and white horizontal stripes. The team's

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

followed the same colour scheme with Adelaide Assassins spelt out in full with a customised

typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...

. The logo featured a black bullet swooshing from the top left to the bottom right.

Adelaide Adrenaline (2011-16)

On 8 August 2011, the Adelaide Assassins merged with the Adelaide Adrenaline ice hockey organisation as part of the wider AWIHL and

Australian Ice Hockey League The Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) is Australia's top-level men's ice hockey league. Established in 2000, the AIHL is sanctioned by Ice Hockey Australia (a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation). The AIHL is a Semi-professional ...

(AIHL) policy for teams to merge or sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreements to better align the two leagues and share resources. This resulted in the Assassins adopting the Adrenaline logo, colour scheme and uniforms. Shifting from predominantly red to dark blue with red, yellow and white secondary colours. The new logo consisted of a hockey puck with AA on the face and a hand breaking through clutching a hockey stick.

Adelaide Rush (2016-present)

On 12 July 2016, the Adelaide Adrenaline's men's and women's programs de-coupled, with the women's program becoming independent once more. The team updated its branding and name, adopting the name Adelaide Rush and new colour scheme of red and navy blue. The team uniforms would revert to predominantly red with a large blue horizontal blue stripe on the front. The new round 'badge' logo features a large red 'R' in its centre on a navy-blue background. This is surrounded by a red ring with navy blue trim with the team's name 'Adelaide Rush' and the year date '2016'. In 2024, the Rush debuted a sky blue alternative jersey for the first time.

Season by season results

Championships

* Joan McKowen Trophy : Champions (6):

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

: Runners-up (3):

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

*Premierships (Gower Memorial Shield / West Lakes Trophy) : Premiers (3):

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

: Runners-up (6):

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Players

Current roster

''Team roster for the 2024-25 AWIHL season.''

Leaders

Captains

The Rush have had six captains in the team's known history, including ten seasons with Candice Mitchell over two stints. References: :¹ In 2016–17, the Rush had three alternative captains, rather than the normal two, Tess Reynolds was the third alternative captain. :² In 2024–25, the Rush had three alternative captains, rather than the normal two, Kirsty Venus was the third alternative captain.

Head coaches

The Rush have had seven head coaches in the team's known history, including Josef Rezek who had two stints as head coach. References:

Broadcasting

Current:
* Sportscast Australia (2023 - present) - On 24 October 2023, the AWIHL signed an agreement with Sportscast Australia to stream the 2023-24 AWIHL season. Launched as AWIHL.TV, every game of the regular and post-season would be available live and on-demand for free, with no region-locks, through the AWIHl.TV website and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Former:
* Clutch.TV (2022-23) - On 22 October 2022, the AWIHL announced a streaming partnership with Australian streaming provider Clutch.TV for worldwide streaming rights for the 2022-23 AWIHL season. Every game of the regular and post-season would be available live and on-demand for free on the Clutch streaming platform. This partnership came to an abrupt end in September 2023, ahead of the new AWIHL season, when Clutch Pty Ltd, who operates Clutch.TV, entered administration and ceased all operations. *

Kayo Sports Kayo Sports is an Australian over-the-top video streaming service owned by Hubbl, a subsidiary of Foxtel. Launched in November 2018, the service is oriented towards sports, carrying live and on-demand content from Foxtel's Fox Sports networks ...

(2018-22) – The AWIHL signed a broadcasting deal with

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

in 2018 to stream on their Kayo Sports platform, a weekly 'game of the week' and 20-minutes highlight package with commentary and player interviews each round of the 2018-19 AWIHL season. This agreement was extended in the 2019-20 season, but was put on hold during the

COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, when the AWIHL had to cancel two consecutive seasons.

References

External links

Australian Women's Hockey League official site

Adelaide Rush official siteBrisbane Goannas official site

Melbourne Ice official Site

Sydney Sirens official Site
{{Sports leagues of Australia Women's ice hockey in Australia Ice hockey clubs established in 2005 Sports clubs and teams in Adelaide 2005 establishments in Australia Ice hockey teams in Australia Women's sports clubs and teams in Australia Women's ice hockey teams Australian Women's Ice Hockey League