Sydney Ice Dogs forward Billy Cliff is currently on his fourth tour of duty with the Australian Men’s Ice hockey team. Cliff was a member of the 2017 Mighty Roo’s team that won silver at the IIHF World Championship  (DIV II Group A) in Romania.

“Winning silver last year was huge!” says Cliff

“But like the great Ricky Bobby says - “if you’re not first you’re last” so we’re all expecting nothing but the gold this year.”

Cliff is an AIHL champion, having won a Goodall Cup with the Ice Dogs in 2013. However, as we start another AIHL season , Cliff has his sights set on another serious piece of hardware, a gold medal for Australia.

“Representing my country is one of the biggest accomplishments I’ve achieved in my life, so I feel honoured and very lucky every time I get to wear the Australian jersey.”

On home ice, Cliff has a reputation as a tenacious speedy forward, who can put the puck in the back of the net and his commitment to off ice training is second to none.

“The main thing I’ve been working on leading up to the Australian training camp is my fitness so I can bring a high level of pressure and speed to the ice every shift throughout the tournament.”

In the lead up to the world championship, the Aussies took part in a warm up game against Cezh side Akademici Plzen, winning 3-1.

“I felt great in the first warm up game” said Cliff, “but the main thing is how well the team worked together and how sharp we looked with just a few training sessions under our belt, by the time the tournament starts we will be flying!”

The Aussies got their 2018 World Championship campaign under way on Monday night, shutting out Iceland 3-0 and after 3 games remain undefeated. Their biggest test will come this weekend, when they face Serbia and the host country the Netherlands in a potential gold medal game.

The Mighty Roos also managed to get their photo taken with the famous Czech hockey player of all time, Jaromir Jagr. The Czech super star has played in over 1900 NHL games and is second on the all-time scoring list behind Wayne Gretzkty.

Cliff will be back in action for the Ice Dogs when the take on their cross town rivals the Sydney Bears on May 5 at the Macquarie Ice Rink, get your tickets online  - https://goo.gl/fimEuv