Nathan Ephraums

Kookaburras forward Nathan Ephraums believes narrowly missing out on selection for the Tokyo Olympics helped turn him into one of world hockey’s most prolific and exciting strikers.

Missing the team taught the young player valuable lessons and encouraged him to work harder and make the most of future opportunities.

“It was definitely a challenging experience being the younger guy in the team and just missing out on selection,” Nathan said.

“It let me feel what it feels like to miss out, and it’s something that I want to be avoiding in the future.

“Missing selection put the fire in my belly to keep making sure I put my best foot forward for future tournaments.”

That fire drove Nathan to a place in the Kookaburras squad at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where he was one of the stars of the gold medal-winning team.

Nathan’s skills with a hockey stick were apparent when he was selected for the firsts hockey team at Haileybury College in Melbourne when he was in Year 7 – making him the youngest on the team.

In the U13 and U15 age groups, the young striker was playing in both indoor and outdoor Victorian teams.

Nathan debuted for Victoria in the Australian Hockey League in 2018, turning in a series of eye-catching performances.

He was included in the Australian Futures squad in 2015 before moving on to the Australian under-21 team in 2017 and 2018. He made his Kookaburras debut against Great Britain in Sydney in February 2020.

After missing selection for Tokyo, he fought his way back into the squad and scored a bag of goals in a four-game series against New Zealand.

That ensured Nathan was on the plane to Birmingham, where he scored six goals as the Kookaburras won gold, including a double in the 7-0 thrashing of India in the final.

It was an emphatic statement from a Kookaburras team that is near unstoppable when at the peak of their powers. The result continued the Kookaburras’ remarkable record of winning every Commonwealth Games gold medal since men’s hockey was introduced to the Games in 1998.

Nathan was also on the scoreboard at the 2023 Hockey World Cup in India, where Australia lost 3-1 to the Netherlands in the bronze medal match, and he picked up six goals in the 2023 FIH Pro League series.

Nathan was a member of the Kookaburras squad that ensured their place at the Paris Olympics when they ground out a 3-1 win over traditional rivals New Zealand to retain the Oceania Cup in Whangarei.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Nathan and the Kookaburras defeated Argentina (1-0), Ireland (2-1) and New Zealand (5-0) in the group stage, which included losses to India (3-2) and Belgium (6-2).

Through to the quarter-finals, that's where their campaign ended with a 2-0 loss to the eventual Olympic gold medallists, the Netherlands.

Nathan, who plays for HC Melbourne in the Hockey One league, is studying social work at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.