Perth Inferno

Lore & Background

The Perth Inferno was founded by Ice Hockey WA in 2016 as the Western Australian state women's team before adopting the Inferno identity and joining the AWIHL as an expansion team in 2018–19. Their home venue is Cockburn Ice Arena, located in south-west Perth. The Inferno have claimed one Gower Memorial Shield premiership, achieved in 2024. In the Joan McKowen Trophy, they have been runners-up once, in 2024. The team's 2019–20 roster included new players such as Sydney Fricker, Heather Hayduk, Rachel Kogiopoulos, Celeste Milner, Mariam Hall, Molly Lukowiak and Sara Sammons, while several players were dropped from the previous roster. The AWIHL has had various broadcasting partners over the years, including Kayo Sports (2018–22), Clutch.TV (2022–23), and Sportscast Australia (2023–present), which streams games on AWIHL.TV.

Reader's Guide

The Perth Inferno represents the highest level of women's ice hockey in Australia as a member of the AWIHL. Their significance lies in being the Western Australian state women's team that transitioned into a league expansion franchise, marking the growth of women's hockey in the region. The team's 2024 Gower Memorial Shield premiership and Joan McKowen Trophy runners-up finish highlight their competitive standing. The Inferno's home at Cockburn Ice Arena provides a dedicated venue for women's elite hockey in Perth. The team's roster changes, such as the addition of players from the WA Blaze and other sources, reflect ongoing development of local talent. Broadcasting agreements with Kayo Sports, Clutch.TV, and Sportscast Australia have increased the team's visibility, with free live streaming available through AWIHL.TV. The Inferno's history, though brief, demonstrates the evolution of women's ice hockey in Australia, from a state team to a league contender.

Did You Know?

• They joined the AWIHL as an expansion team in the 2018–19 season.
• The Inferno won their first Gower Memorial Shield premiership in 2024.

From State Squad to Inferno: The Birth of a Franchise

The Perth Inferno did not arrive on the Australian women's ice hockey scene fully formed. In 2016, Ice Hockey WA established the team as the Western Australian state women's squad, a functional representative unit rather than a branded franchise. It was two years later, in the 2018–19 campaign, that the squad shed its generic state-team label and embraced the Inferno identity, entering the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League as an expansion side. The AWIHL sits at the top of the national women's ice hockey pyramid, making the Inferno's entry a significant step for Perth-based players who had previously competed only in a representative capacity. The team is based in Perth, Western Australia, and calls Cockburn Ice Arena in the city's south-west its home rink. As an amateur outfit, the Inferno operates within the broader ecosystem of Ice Hockey Australia and the wider Australian ice hockey community, which also fields men's, junior, and other women's competitions. The shift from a state representative team to a named franchise with its own identity marked a turning point in how Western Australian women's ice hockey presented itself to the national stage.

The 2024 Breakthrough: Shield Champions and McKowen Finalists

For a team that entered the AWIHL as a late-2018 expansion side, the Perth Inferno's trophy cabinet remains modest, yet the 2024 season delivered a landmark achievement. That year, the Inferno claimed the Gower Memorial Shield, their first and to date only premiership in the competition. The Shield represents a major honour in Australian women's ice hockey, and lifting it validated the franchise's growing competitive standing after several seasons of building. In the same 2024 campaign, the team also pushed to the final of the Joan McKowen Trophy, finishing as runners-up. The fact that the Inferno reached the decider of both major AWIHL honours in a single season underscores how far the squad had progressed from its 2016 origins as a state representative unit. Beyond 2024, the record shows no other Shield titles or McKowen final appearances, meaning that single season stands as the franchise's defining competitive moment. For a Perth-based amateur team playing at Cockburn Ice Arena, that 2024 double final run remains the high-water mark of the Inferno's brief but ambitious history in the national league.

Squad Turnover and the WA Blaze Pipeline (2019–20)

When the Perth Inferno published its roster for the 2019–20 AWIHL season in August 2019, the player list revealed a squad in active transition. Seven new names appeared: Sydney Fricker, Heather Hayduk, and Mariam Hall all arrived from the WA Blaze, while Rachel Kogiopoulos, Celeste Milner, Molly Lukowiak, and Sara Sammons joined from elsewhere. The heavy reliance on the WA Blaze as a feeder source highlights the close-knit nature of Western Australian women's ice hockey, where a limited pool of players circulates among a small number of clubs and state programs. On the other side of the ledger, eleven players were dropped from the previous roster, including Celestine Adams, Keesha Atkins, Taylor Cookson, Katrina Dobo, Melissa Jetten, Ella Licari, Cara Minney-Smith, Shelley Pippo-Giuffre, Courtney Poole, Madison Poole, and Tansy Thomas-Bland. That level of turnover—nearly a full roster reshuffle in a single offseason—speaks to the challenges an expansion team faces in finding a stable core. The 2019–20 roster thus captures a moment of flux, where the Inferno was still defining its identity on the ice.

From Kayo to AWIHL.TV: The Inferno's Broadcasting Journey

The Perth Inferno's visibility on screen has been shaped as much by the AWIHL's broadcasting partnerships as by the team's own on-ice product. The league's first deal, struck with Fox Sports in 2018, placed a weekly game of the week and a twenty-minute highlight package with commentary and player interviews on the Kayo Sports platform. That arrangement carried through the 2019–20 season before being suspended when the pandemic forced the AWIHL to cancel two consecutive campaigns. In October 2022, the league pivoted to Clutch.TV, offering free worldwide live and on-demand streaming of every regular and post-season game. However, that partnership ended abruptly in September 2023 when Clutch Pty Ltd entered administration and ceased operations entirely. The current arrangement, signed on 24 October 2023 with Sportscast Australia, launched as AWIHL.TV. It provides free, region-unlocked live and on-demand coverage of every match through a dedicated website and YouTube, ensuring the Inferno's games at Cockburn Ice Arena reach the widest possible audience without paywalls.