Past: Vancouver Hawks
Present: Wright Field
Future: International club
Liam Fannin will leave the country later this year with the aim of coming back stronger for Team Canada. The Vancouver Hawks defender and Churchill secondary graduate has three caps with the national U21 field hockey team and says he can best develop his game outside the country on a different roster than his brother.
They both want to find competition with club teams in different parts of the world, but the 17-year-old twins still talk about doing it as one.
"We intend to take a gap year together," said Liam.
When they played on separate teams one season, both grew as individual athletes. "To play apart, we will develop our own game," he said. "When we played on the same club team, a lot of our play would be based exclusively around us two, passing and playing together."
On rare occasions, the pair will combine during a game but the defender and forward have different responsibilities and styles.
"Liam is always trying to do the defensive job for us and plays a lot more conservative," said Aaron Guest, a coach who does double duty with the Hawks and national U21 team. "Once he has the ball, he's quick and his primary job is the defensive job first."
Both twins will make the most of national team connections to the wider world, including Guest who played in Melbourne, and the senior men's coach, an Australian, who also played competitively in that country.
Liam, who is 12 minutes older than his brother, knows what they stand to gain, together and separately. "I want to play with a very high level team," he said, "and get more experience."
Twitter.com/MHStewart
