Canberra Brave

Did You Know?

• The Brave have had a total of four captains in five terms, with Mark Rummukainen as the first captain.
• The Brave have had a total of six head coaches, with five permanent appointments and two interim, with Matti Luoma as the first head coach.
• The Brave won the ACT Government Award for Team of the Year in 2018, 2022, and 2024, and the Award for Event Excellence in 2025.

History

The Canberra Brave, originally called the CBR Brave, came into existence in March 2014 to fill the gap left by the Canberra Knights in the Australian Ice Hockey League. On 26 February 2014, Knights owner John Raut surrendered his AIHL licence and shut down the team after 33 years, pointing to high financial costs, a shortage of local players, and a long stretch of poor results. Right after the Knights folded, a group of players formed a consortium and asked the AIHL about taking over the vacant licence to start a new Canberra team. The league supported the idea, saying a Canberra team was crucial for growing hockey in Australia. The AIHL set three conditions: a signed agreement for a home venue, the ability to put together a competitive team for the coming season, and proof of financial stability. Once those were met, the league and its teams approved a provisional twelve-month licence for the 2014 season. On 6 March 2014, the CBR Brave was launched under new owners Peter Chamberlain, a director at Allinsure, and Jamie Wilson, owner-director of the advertising firm Coordinate, after they reached out to Mark Rummukainen, who led the player consortium. On 15 March 2014, the team unveiled its brand and logo, a stylised version of the word "Brave." On 31 March 2014, the Brave signed their first import, Finnish goaltender Petri Pitkänen, who became a standout alongside fellow imports Anton Kokkonen, Stephen Blunden, and Mathieu Ouellette. On 12 April 2014, the Brave played their first AIHL game at home against the Newcastle North Stars, losing 2-0 in front of about 1,000 fans. The media called it a big win for Canberra, noting the team had been built through a community and fan fundraising drive that collected over $27,000.

Club identity

The name and branding for the new club, CBR Brave, were crafted by advertising agency Coordinate to break away from the Knights' history and start afresh, partly because former Knights owner John Raut retained the rights to the old club's name. The consortium adopted CBR based on the 2013 ACT Government project designed to promote Canberra through the CBR brand, giving the team a unique identity in a crowded Canberra sports market. 'Brave' was selected as it embodied the values of the team, community, and fans. The team embraced the Australian Capital Territory flag colours of yellow, navy blue, and white. Home kits were predominantly navy blue with yellow and white accents, while away kits were predominantly white. In 2016, the navy blue shade became darker. In 2017, away kits switched to light grey with navy blue accents. In 2020, new home jerseys featured black and grey, and away jerseys white and black. In 2024, to celebrate 10 years of Brave hockey, the team underwent a complete re-brand by Canberra company Supercurious, adopting black, white, and gold as new colours and amending the name from CBR Brave to Canberra Brave.

Players

The CBR Brave team of 2018 secured the double by winning the H Newman Reid Trophy and Goodall Cup, setting league records for most points (72) and most wins (24) in a regular season. The Brave defeated the Melbourne Mustangs 5–1 in the semi-final and the Sydney Bears 4–3 in overtime in the final. Trevor Gerling was named finals MVP and finished equal top point scorer. The 2019 Brave team broke AIHL regular season records for most wins (26), most points (79), largest winning streak (17 matches), most goals scored (161), fewest goals conceded in a 28-match season (67), and least losses in a 28-match season (2), winning the H Newman Reid Trophy 25 points ahead of second place. The 2022 Brave team won the premiership/championship double for the second time in team history, in a reduced six-team season, breaking team records for largest regular season win and largest finals win. The team roster for the 2026 AIHL season is listed, as are the top-ten all-time franchise players in appearances, goals, assists, points, and penalty minutes.

Broadcasting

As of 2023, the Brave's games are broadcast worldwide on AIHL.TV, a paid subscription-based online video service in partnership with Clutch.TV. International broadcasting in North America and Europe is provided by Sportradar under a league-wide three-year deal signed in March 2022. Domestically, Kayo Sports broadcast every AIHL game live in 2022. From 2020 to 2021, Wonqy. was intended to livestream Brave home matches but never delivered due to the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Between 2017 and 2019, the Brave self-broadcast online audio streams of all home matches via Mixlr. From 2014 to 2019, the Brave were part of the AIHL TV broadcasting deal with Fox Sports. From 2014 to 2016, Ascension Sports and Host Works broadcast every Brave home match live online until league broadcasting rules changed in 2017.