Laver, Brent

BORN MARCH 15TH 1974, at Sandringham in Melbourne Australia, he played senior B for the Demons in the Victorian league in 1990, on his way to the A-grade in 1992 where he remained until 2002, producing 100 games for the club across 3 grades for a total of 13 goals, 23 assists. A captain of the Victorian junior state team coached by Demon, Paul Watson, he played senior hockey at 17, but says he was probably not good enough by his mid-20s to play for Australia. He became a coach of both junior hockey and football. Tim Scott knew him as "An equally capable footballer, hard as a Cats head, he gave it away too soon, but definitely followed his No 1 passion, that was very clear."

The game moved on without him until the Medibank Icehouse opened in Melbourne and he returned as a supporter and sponsor of the Melbourne Ice. Old fires were rekindled by the new rink and the 3 successive Goodall Cups won by the Club, after almost 3 decades of the longest dry spell in Cup history. Four years later, he was coaching the Ice, first as assistant to Sandy Gardner in 2013 after Watson retired, then Head Coach in 2014.

In 2013, his club lost in a semi-final to the Sydney Ice Dogs; lost in the 2014 Grand Final to the Melbourne Mustangs in his first season as Head Coach; lost in the 2015 Grand Final to the North Stars; and shock lost in semi-final overtime to the Brave in 2016. He guided the Ice to the 2016 minor premiership, setting a new League record of 66 championship points, eclipsing the club's own AIHL record of 65 points set in 2011 and 2006. Although recording 22 wins throughout the 28 game regular season, his team missed the Grand Final for the first time in three seasons. Still he was philosophical. "The resilience and the belief amongst the group has been the biggest growth area this year," he said.

“Some people might say we took a step backwards, not making our third final in a row, but that resilience and belief has been there from the first day we jumped on the ice this season… I think that’s what I’ll take with me is the resilience of the boys to turn up week in, week out, in any barn all over the country and battle hard, no matter who I had on the bench.” He was awarded AIHL Coach of the Year that season, the year he also coached the Ginsberg state team (U13).

In a long and distinguished coaching career, notable for a personal commitment to improving his skills, he attended clinics with the NHL San José Sharks in the USA and still takes "the opportunity to have somebody come out and take practices and watch and listen and talk to us and do reviews with us and do critical analysis on how we're going about it so we can be better." He and Johan Steenberg, assistant coach at the Ice, established a player exchange commencing with 2 players training in the Swedish Division 1 Östersunds IK team, which in turn led to the involvement of coach Charles Franzén (Tranås AIF) with the Melbourne club in 2016.

That year, he was also assistant coach to Steve Laforet in the National Youth Team (U18) for the Division 3 World Championships, where Australia won Gold and promotion to Division 2. He helped repeat the feat in the higher Division in 2017 in Belgrade, winning promotion to Division IIA. "The best person I've ever worked with on a bench," announced Laforet emphatically. "This man has never let me down. The knowledge he has passed down to me and the players we have coached have produced better citizens in the world. Without him Australia doesn't win back-to-back gold medals."

In 2017, he stood down as Head Coach of the Melbourne Ice enabling Franzén to assume the top job. He focused on player development coaching, a role well suited to his natural people-skills, and he was also appointed coach of the Melbourne Ice women's team in the AWIHL. In the AIHL, he contributed to breaking the points record he helped set the previous year, among a swag of other League records, winning both the Minor Premiership and the Goodall Cup.

"I have been extremely blessed," he said later "to walk into a hallway, be offered to be part of something special, then have it lead to some of the best and hardest sporting moments, and the chance to build the closest friendships that will last forever."