By Adam Clifford
Joel Rintala has never been one for long speeches. He prefers to let his stick do the talking, and when it does, the sound is usually a thud of ball on backboard or the crack of a drag flick that teammates swear travels like a cannonball.
The Townsville product grew up with hockey stitched into his DNA. His parents played, his older brother and twin were his first sparring partners in the backyard, and his aunty Renita Farrell‑Garard (a Hockeyroos legend with Olympic gold in 1996 and 2000) set the family standard. “Hockey was always part of my life,” Joel says simply. Family dinners and birthdays were often scheduled around training or weekend fixtures, the Rintalas swapping candles and cake for sticks and shin pads.
At 17 he left home for Brisbane, chasing a dream that meant leaving behind those family dinners for the grind of elite training. That leap of faith eventually carried him to Christchurch in 2023, where he pulled on the green and gold for the first time. “Nerves. Adrenaline. Nothing but pride,” he recalls. In his second Test, he scored a hat‑trick. Hockey Australia’s own post-match report called it a “three‑goal burst that propelled the Kookaburras past New Zealand.” It was certainly a debut that had selectors and fans buzzing.
But since then, the road has zig‑zagged for the luckless Rintala. Injuries, surgery, and the disappointment of being named a travelling reserve for the Oceania Cup tested his patience. He missed the entire One Active Hockey One League last year after surgery and endured three months of rehabilitation before rebuilding. Yet he was backed in by new Kookaburras coach Mark Hager, who ushered in a new era by naming him in the senior squad for 2025. The belief was that post‑surgery, his body was finally robust enough for international hockey again. “Joel showed glimpses of his true talent,” Hager said. “He brings the specialty of the drag flick as well, with a great goal‑scoring sense. He’s fantastic around the group.”
Now, as Brisbane Blaze prepare for the new Hockey One campaign, Rintala knows the stakes. This isn’t just another season. It’s his “Last Dance,” to borrow the Michael Jordan analogy. It’s a defining campaign that could cement his place in the World Cup squad or open the door for the next generation. But he isn’t looking over his shoulder or fretting about who might be coming through. He’s eyes‑forward, grinning, the larrikin who jokes with teammates in the warm‑up and then buries flicks into corners once the whistle blows. “After being reserve for Oceania Cup, I just want to continue to love the sport I’ve done since I was a young boy and step up to the challenge,” Rintala states.
Now, if Rintala’s hockey story is about resilience, his personal life is most definitely about partnership. He and Olympic swimmer Shayna Jack met at the Queensland Academy of Sport gym in 2016, when both were teenagers still trying to crack national squads. She was a rising freestyle sprinter, he was a raw forward with a heavy flick. They bonded over early‑morning sessions and the grind of chasing something bigger. A decade later, they’ll marry in 2026.
Jack’s career has been lived in the glare of headlines: a prodigy who won double gold at the 2014 Junior Pan Pacs, a world record‑breaker at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and then the crushing blow of a two‑year suspension in 2019 after testing positive for ligandrol. She always maintained her innocence, telling News Ltd at the time: “I would never intentionally take a banned substance that would disrespect my sport and jeopardise my career.”
Her comeback was one of Australian sport’s most compelling redemption arcs. At the 2022 World Championships in Budapest she won relay gold and silver, then at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games she collected a full set of medals. In 2023 she claimed her first individual world medal — silver in the 50m freestyle — and was part of three world‑record‑breaking relay teams. By Paris 2024, she was back on top of the world, winning two Olympic golds in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays. “Not only did I defy the odds and come back, I did exactly what I said I was going to do,” she told reporters. “I came back with fight and said, ‘Watch me go to the Olympics’.”
Through it all, Rintala was there. Not just in words, but in presence. He was the one holding her when she cried, the one making her laugh when the noise outside was deafening, the one who cooked dinner when she was too drained to move. “Supporting her and having to watch her go through her drug accusation was difficult, but I had to be the constant in her life,” he says. “She also supported me and was what helped me continue to be driven in my hockey during that period.”
During Paris, he was the anchor while she shone. He wasn’t selected for the Kookaburras’ Olympic squad, having only played six FIH Pro League games beforehand and missing the final European tour that sealed selection. It crushed his hopes, but he parked his own disappointment to be her rock. “This was her moment and I couldn’t be more proud of her. No matter what my feelings were about my sport, I was there for her.” Jack, in turn, has given him advice he carries into every match, ‘enjoy the journey, smile, because you can’t always control the outcomes’.
The couple’s move together in Perth, the Kookaburras’ daily training environment, was another chapter. It wasn’t seamless, when they lost their beloved dog Hugo to cancer earlier this year, and Jack initially stayed in Brisbane with coach Dean Boxall before joining Joel in WA. “We are a team and we believe we are better athletes when we are together,” Rintala says. “So Shayna, Willa and I are having a new adventure in sport and outside of sport balancing everything in WA.”
He laughs at the idea of being a “glamour couple.” “Key word, Shayna manages it,” he says. “We don’t think of ourselves as a glamour or power couple, we are very much people who have been there for each other before our sports grew into more.” Asked what Jack would say about his hockey style, he checked with her. Her answer: “The glue. The person who brings people together and helps them find the joy on the field and at training.
That glue has already stuck in Blaze folklore. In 2023, Rintala returned from injury just before finals and promptly tore apart the Perth Thundersticks with a hat‑trick, before helping Brisbane shock the previously unbeaten NSW Pride in a penalty shootout to win the title. It was a reminder of his immense scoring pedigree and his knack for delivering when it matters most.
Now, as another season dawns, Joel Rintala is smiling, joking, and flicking balls into corners. He doesn’t need to say much. He just needs to keep being himself. The larrikin, the glue, the finisher, and let the hockey world decide if that’s enough.
And if he does, it won’t just be Brisbane Blaze who benefit. It will be the Kookaburras, it will be Australian hockey, and it will be the sponsors who’ve backed him through the grind — Petro Builders, who employed him for six years before Perth, QLD Podiatry and Orthotics, who’ve kept him on his feet and Gryphon Hockey, who’ve armed him with sticks for over a decade.
Joel Rintala’s “Last Dance” is only just beginning.