09:52AM, Wed 18 March
Big win, big money and big debate
Two weekends ago we played against Den Bosch and had a convincing win 11-1. It was the biggest score that I have been involved in since playing for Bloemendaal.
The goals were shared around the team but Olmer Meijer scored his first hat-trick for the club.
Den Bosch had 5 or 6 of their foreign players missing and they were greatly missed. I still think we played good hockey and we’re improving which is a good sign.
Ever since I first played in Holland people have been talking about how much players get paid and about the number of foreign players in the Dutch competition.
There was an article in the hockey.nl magazine the other week and it listed, what they thought, were the wages of the Dutch team and a couple of foreign players, myself included.
It said that Teun De Nooijer roughly earns 7.5 times the average Dutch wage and Taeke Taekema 4.5 times the average. The average wage in Holland is 31,000 Euro gross, according to Wikipedia.
I believe that players like Teun and Taeke deserve the money they earn. Whether they get actually get paid that or not, I don’t know.
Teun has been one of the best players in the world for the last 15 years and is the perfect role model for up and coming hockey players. Taeke has the best corner in the world and is a very important player in Amsterdam and Holland. People come to watch these types of players.
The article also said that I earn roughly the same as Teun, which would work out at around AUS $450,000. I can honestly tell you that this is NOT TRUE. I really wish it was true, but unfortunately it’s not.
It is true though that I, like Teun and Taeke, earn money from what I love doing - playing hockey. I feel very lucky that my job is hockey and I get paid to do what I love.
Do I feel bad for making money from hockey? When I see what soccer players, AFL, NRL, American Football, rugby union and other sports stars earn I don’t feel bad at all. We train as much as those guys and I think hockey is a great sport to watch, especially live.
“Foreigners” is the other big subject that gets spoken about regularly. I believe that if there were no foreign players in the competition that it would not be as good as what it is.
It has its advantages and disadvantages, and I think the advantages out-way the disadvantages.
You have to look at the facts: Laren have scored 40 goals and 31 of them are from foreign players; HGC have scored 49 goals with 41 coming from foreign players and Rotterdam 43 goals with 29 from foreign players.
The top three teams Bloemendaal, Amsterdam, and Oranje Zwart have the majority of the Dutch players and the rest need foreign players to compete.
I like the competition and when I wake up on Sunday I know that I’m about to play a tough game. Without the foreign players I don’t think I would have that same feeling every Sunday. It would be like every other competition in the world and would not be unique.
A lot of people might disagree with me, but that’s how I feel about these sometimes touchy subjects.
Thanks for reading what I have to say and keep in touch.
Jamie
The goals were shared around the team but Olmer Meijer scored his first hat-trick for the club.
Den Bosch had 5 or 6 of their foreign players missing and they were greatly missed. I still think we played good hockey and we’re improving which is a good sign.
Ever since I first played in Holland people have been talking about how much players get paid and about the number of foreign players in the Dutch competition.
There was an article in the hockey.nl magazine the other week and it listed, what they thought, were the wages of the Dutch team and a couple of foreign players, myself included.
It said that Teun De Nooijer roughly earns 7.5 times the average Dutch wage and Taeke Taekema 4.5 times the average. The average wage in Holland is 31,000 Euro gross, according to Wikipedia.
I believe that players like Teun and Taeke deserve the money they earn. Whether they get actually get paid that or not, I don’t know.
Teun has been one of the best players in the world for the last 15 years and is the perfect role model for up and coming hockey players. Taeke has the best corner in the world and is a very important player in Amsterdam and Holland. People come to watch these types of players.
The article also said that I earn roughly the same as Teun, which would work out at around AUS $450,000. I can honestly tell you that this is NOT TRUE. I really wish it was true, but unfortunately it’s not.
It is true though that I, like Teun and Taeke, earn money from what I love doing - playing hockey. I feel very lucky that my job is hockey and I get paid to do what I love.
Do I feel bad for making money from hockey? When I see what soccer players, AFL, NRL, American Football, rugby union and other sports stars earn I don’t feel bad at all. We train as much as those guys and I think hockey is a great sport to watch, especially live.
“Foreigners” is the other big subject that gets spoken about regularly. I believe that if there were no foreign players in the competition that it would not be as good as what it is.
It has its advantages and disadvantages, and I think the advantages out-way the disadvantages.
You have to look at the facts: Laren have scored 40 goals and 31 of them are from foreign players; HGC have scored 49 goals with 41 coming from foreign players and Rotterdam 43 goals with 29 from foreign players.
The top three teams Bloemendaal, Amsterdam, and Oranje Zwart have the majority of the Dutch players and the rest need foreign players to compete.
I like the competition and when I wake up on Sunday I know that I’m about to play a tough game. Without the foreign players I don’t think I would have that same feeling every Sunday. It would be like every other competition in the world and would not be unique.
A lot of people might disagree with me, but that’s how I feel about these sometimes touchy subjects.
Thanks for reading what I have to say and keep in touch.
Jamie
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