When Kooveen’s Mestis season ended in March, it was Samuli Vainionpään the season is only meant to be halfway through.
The World Cup and the NHL are by no means the only places in the world where hockey is still played these days.
The season of Australia’s highest league AIHL (Australian Ice Hockey League) starts in April and ends in the fall. Vainionpää and his old game partner went to Australia Julius Valtonen decided to leave.
On this trip, not many things went as planned. The six-month trip became a month-long one, when Vainionpää returned to Finland already at the beginning of May.
A lot happened in the month both in Australia and in Tampere. Vainionpää’s daily life in Finland began without his own apartment and job.
The background company of ex-club Koovee had also come to an end in the meantime.
The plans were immediately changed
The deviations from the plan started right away in April.
Julius Valtonen’s season in the French Bordeaux Boxers team stretched so far into the spring that he didn’t get to go on the trip himself. In addition, Valtonen signed an extension to France.
Vainionpää, on the other hand, did not have a contract to limit playing.
– We joked at first that I would go see the places and if they are not in order, then you won’t come at all. I think he felt a little bit of pain because he didn’t really get to join.
However, Vainionpää decided to leave. He already had good experiences traveling based on Valtonen’s suggestions, as the friends played in France in the jersey of Les Aigles de Nice in the 2022–23 season.
On the other side of the world, the Sydney Bears team was waiting. Vainionpää did not have a clear understanding of the local hockey culture or the country itself.
Or as he himself characterizes his impression tongue in cheek:
– Yes, it was quite classic, that a slightly bigger Åland, with lots of snakes and strict border control, is filmed by Vainionpää, who watched the TV series Australia on the border before leaving.
Equipment lost
About 15,000 flight kilometers later, Vainionpää was in Sydney.
The Australian border control, known for its tight grip, once believed when Vainionpää, who had properly arranged a work visa for himself in advance, announced at the airport counter that he had come to the country to play hockey.
However, the puck equipment did not reach the ground, but cruised the runways for an unknown five days.
When teammates saw the Finn for the first time during ice training, it was a strange sight.
– I had the skates of the team custodian on loan, loan gloves and a loan racket. I did a strength exercise in chinos, laughs “Vainari”.
The games came in the best way before the first match. The Sydney Bears faced the local opponent, the Sydney Ice Dogs.
The teams’ home arena, the Macquarie ice rink, is located in the shopping centre.
– At first, we went to the wrong parking garage and then walked with our teammates through the entire shopping center with the game sticks on our shoulders. It was a bit of a different entry.
The ice rink was found. There were 1,200 spectators in the derby, which is more than in many Mestis matches.
– Mecca was great, there was enough atmosphere.
What was special about the hall was that there were no Plexiglas in the rink at all, but only loose nets at the ends.
It was also pointless to dream about a springboard in Australia, so being tackled against the side really feels like being tackled. This affects the game, for example, in such a way that you don’t rush into the corners in quite the same way as in Finland.
On the other hand, in a country of long distances, traveling to away games was done “NHL-style” by flying, which is not common in Finland.
In the games themselves it hurt and happened. Vainionpää, who scored 5+4 in the six games he played, remembers the highest-numbered match ended with goals 9–7.
Ice hockey player without a job
The AIHL is an amateur series, which means the players do not get paid, but compensation comes in other benefits, for example travel and housing. So you need a job to live.
The players of the Sydney Bears are, for example, teachers, truck drivers and electricians. Vainionpää liked the fact that 20 different personalities gathered together to do what everyone liked and “a relaxed flap flew”.
The team had promised Vainionpää a job from the team’s main sponsor in the restaurant industry.
That’s what he was waiting for and asked his time, but there was no answer.
– Then I thought it would be better to come back to Finland.
Vainionpää’s trip to Australia finally lasted 31 days.
Expiration of contracts before the deadline is not exceptional in itself in hockey, but Vainionpää’s long journey and return after a short time brings its own challenges to life. The apartment in Tampere was rented out, and the job search is ahead.
Despite this, he considers the travel experience positive. According to Vainionpää, the relationship with the Sydney Bears is also okay, although he did not get a clear reason for not getting the job.
Vainionpää says that several people who came to the team from elsewhere had the same situation with their workplace.
You could enjoy ice hockey
Vainionpää liked the fact that he could enjoy playing ice hockey himself and fulfill himself during his trips to France and Australia.
In the league Ilves and TPS, the attacker who appeared in four chains focused on the goal blocking game never experienced a role as his own. For example, in Nice, he was the second most effective player of the season in his team, after Valtonen.
– If you always play it safe, maybe you won’t get such a great feeling of success. The important thing is to know how to enjoy playing.
Returning home came unexpectedly, but when the roof is over your head and the Finnish summer is ahead, there is nothing more stressful for Vainionpää.
The puck career continues, but where, it’s still open. Primarily, Vainionpää is looking abroad.
– I hope you can find such a birdhouse somewhere. A place where it’s nice to be. And then, of course, that the game would go well and there would be a good team.
Even if you could get Valtonen along.