Josh Beltz (hockey) was one of eight Commonwealth Games debutants in the Kookaburras squad in Birmingham where the team notched up their seventh consecutive gold medal.

Josh grew up in Hobart where his family was heavily involved in the hockey community and played for the DiamondBacks Hockey Club, but it was a visit from Olympic gold medallist Matthew Wells to his primary school that inspired Josh to continue on his journey. He made is Australian Hockey League debut in 2014 where Tasmania won the tournament for the first time and was offered a spot in the Australia A camp shortly after. The following year, he moved to Perth to join the Kookaburras’ program and made his international debut against India. He was part of the Olympic training squad in 2016 but narrowly missed the cut for the Rio Games. He was almost twice unlucky after initially being named as a reserve for Tokyo 2020, then was upgraded just days before the Games when eligibility rules were relaxed to allow reserves to play.

Joshua’s younger brother Hayden plays for Australia’s under-21 side the ‘Burras’ and is rated in the top tier of the development squad.