When Garry Doré left Canada to play for an Australian hockey team he knew little about in 1981, he never thought he would be winning championships 45 years later in the place he now calls home. Doré, then 23, was playing for a senior hockey team called the Islanders in Port Alberni, B.C., with four friends when a woman they knew brought her Australian husband to one of their games. He quite enjoyed the game and offered to connect the group with a man who managed a team in Newcastle called the Northstars—Doré and company didn’t hesitate. “With those guys, it was very easy … play some ice hockey and have a bit of a party,” he told CTV News. “We’re all working at the mills and having good jobs, and we thought we’d take some time off and come to the land down under.” Fast forward 45 years, and Doré won his seventh championship as general manager of the Newcastle Northstars of the Australian Ice Hockey League, in addition to the title he won as a player. If you stopped 23-year-old Doré when he landed in Newcastle and told him he’d still be there in 2026—two children, a handful of grandchildren, a couple of careers, and a whole lot of hockey later—he would have told you that you’re crazy. “Not a chance,” he laughed. “It’s just like a fairy tale for me.” ‘You look lost’ Doré and his teammates were approached around Christmas 1980, and they were on a flight to Australia by May of 1981. “It was pretty quick,” he said. “We made some inquiries, contacted people connected with the league here, and they put us in the right direction.” Doré’s three teammates left two weeks before him, so he flew into Newcastle on his own. Coming from a mill town in B.C., Doré found comfort seeing a massive steel mill after he landed, but it quickly became apparent he wasn’t exactly in Kansas anymore. “I drove to town, got dropped off at a bus (stop), and there I am with my leather jacket, cowboy boots on and a hockey bag, and a little lady comes up to me and goes, ‘Love, you look lost,’” he explained. Doré quickly responded, “I am lost, actually.” “She sent me the direction of a phone. I went there, picked it up. The cord was dangling, no connection,” he laughed. Doré found his way to a hotel pub, found a couple of beers and a phone, and reunited with his teammates shortly after. He said the other three landed in Melbourne and planned on playing there instead, but they weren’t thrilled with the city and opted to join him in Newcastle. His friend Paul Noble became coach of the Northstars, and Doré and two friends landed on the roster. When the group skated onto the ice in Newcastle, Doré and his friends found the Australian players were amazing skaters. “Their hockey knowledge—not so good, so there was a lot of development and training required,” he said. Playing in what was then called the National Ice Hockey League was very much a user-pays experience, Doré noted, as Canadian players had to pay to fly over, find their own jobs, and cover accommodations—all things he said he was happy to do. ‘I wasn’t going anywhere’ Doré said he and his friends had an incredible time throughout the season and they found social life between Australians and Canadians quite compatible. “This city was just absolutely beautiful, and I thought, ‘I’d love to live here,’” he said. “It turned out I did.” After the hockey season, a recession hit back home in Canada, and Doré said his teammates were told they had to return home if they wanted to keep their jobs at the local sawmills. “It was difficult,” he said. “They’re my good friends, and we hung out a lot, especially back home.” They left, but Doré said he met someone special that first year and just couldn’t leave. As he explained, an Australian woman named Leanne met some Canadians and became curious about hockey, so she went to a Northstars game. After the game, she and Doré met at a local drinking hall called the Clarendon Hotel. “When she left, I said, ‘Look, do you mind if I give you a call?’” he recalled. “She said yes, and that’s where it all began.” “I was smitten, and that was the end of it. I wasn’t going anywhere.” When his second season began, Doré stepped up for the team, taking a hybrid role as both player and coach. Unfortunately, Newcastle’s season was cut short after their rink closed down in mid-1982 and the team folded. The Northstars certainly weren’t what was holding Doré in Newcastle anymore, though, as he had fallen in love with the city itself and a woman living in it. The Dorés got married after hockey went on pause, and Garry brought his new wife to his hometown of Port Alberni for a few months. After coming back to Australia, he returned to hockey for a couple of years, commuting from Newcastle to Sydney to play for a club called the Bears, where he won his first title as a player. Circling back After hockey, Doré worked in real estate for a few years, and the couple welcomed their two children, Luke and Lindsay, before Garry joined the New South Wales Police Force in 1987. He said he progressed to the rank of detective senior constable, but a sudden injury took him off the force. “I recovered well, but over the years, those injuries caught up with me,” he said. Doré explained that the New South Wales Police Force was retiring any officers with personal disabilities around that time, and his injuries lumped him into that category. The next several years brought opportunities for the Dorés, after Garry met a man who wanted to build an ice rink. Through his involvement with the Northstars and Bears, he was invited to a few meetings and then asked to manage the new facility. “A Canadian boy coming to Australia to play ice hockey, and the cycle ended up running an ice rink; it was pretty exciting,” he said. The Dorés bought into the rink, called Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, and it opened in 2000—one year later, a team called the Northstars was skating in Newcastle again, and Garry was named its general manager. “We didn’t do so well the first year, but the next year, I put my thinking cap on,” he said. “We imported a Canadian coach in 2003, and we won the championship … It was pretty amazing; we just went from there.” Doré told CTV News that getting back to hockey after more than a decade away from the sport he loved—and came to Australia for—felt both natural and emotional. “It just doesn’t leave you,” he said. “As soon as you see the ice, put the skates on, get out there, it’s just wonderful.” ‘We don’t have enough seats’ The goal for any team manager in any sport is to grow the club’s popularity in the area and win championships. Doré and the Northstars did just that—winning the AIHL Goodall Cup in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2015, 2016, and now in 2026. Doré called the team’s fanbase “dynamic,” and admired how much it has grown in Newcastle and elsewhere in Australia over the years. “Every game, every team, every rink is sold out,” he said. “We don’t have enough seats. We’re already screaming for season tickets for next year, and we won’t even be able to accommodate them. It’s a good problem.” “They support us day in, day out, and you know, as far as they’re concerned, we can do no wrong.” The demand for ice hockey in Newcastle was there from the opening of the rink, Doré said, and having a home team to look up to has helped local kids progress in the sport. Doré saw this grassroots development firsthand, watching his son Luke play 125 games with the AIHL club and its farm team between 2003 and 2024. Doré said watching his son play for the team he helped build was simply “amazing.” When asked whether he fulfilled his own childhood hockey dreams, Doré explained that his hockey ambitions have “gone absolutely over and beyond” what he ever imagined. “To be recognized as being elite in my position in the sport in Australia as a general manager, a team organizer, team builder, I’m very gracious and very proud and very honoured to fit that role,” he said. “It doesn’t happen overnight, and it just doesn’t happen to everyone.” Doré further mentioned he met Wayne Gretzky and held the Stanley Cup at events in Australia in 2016 and 2025, adding an extra touch to those fulfilled hockey dreams. ‘Winning this one for him’ Doré’s son Luke fell while playing hockey and was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease in November 2024. Since then, Doré said Luke’s ability to move has deteriorated badly, resulting in the loss of all movement in his arms and legs. “We’re going through a terrible time,” he said. The team has been incredibly supportive, Doré added, participating in Walk for MND fundraisers and promotions in support of Luke. “He got to know all of the guys, played hockey with them all. When the imports used to come out (to Australia), he used to invite them to his place for barbecues and get-togethers,” Doré said. Doré explained that the Northstars’ players felt very close to Luke, so they were “committed to winning this one for him.” Photos taken after the 2026 Goodall Cup win on Aug. 30 show an overjoyed Doré celebrating alongside the players. “This has been a season filled with so many twists, turns, and emotions, and to see this group come through it all and finish as champions makes it even more special,” he wrote in a Facebook post after the win.
