Commonwealh Games: Andrew Charter's lasting legacy to Canberra sport

The Australian goalkeeper is on the brink of doing something no other men's goalkeeper in the nation has done, reaching 200 national caps - even before he steps foot in Birmingham - but he is not done just yet.

And he will not be done until another ACT native makes their debut for the Kookaburras.

Charter's hopes he can help that happen through his role with the Canberra Chill side this Hockey One season.

"Hockey one is super important for the ongoing development of our game," he said.

"I'm excited, I like to give back to the grassroots, and to Canberra specifically because that's where it all began for me.

"So to give back to the younger generation, and hopefully inspire them or give them the tools so they can progress their career to hopefully play for the Kookaburras in the future is what I do it for.

"I'm still waiting for someone to come in, I've said I'm not going to retire until another Canberra guy debuts for the Kookaburras."

But for now the 35-year-old's focus remains on upcoming international friendlies against Spain and the Netherlands, and then the Commonwealth Games.

The Kookaburras missed crucial international match-ups before Tokyo, due to COVID-19.

Charter said borders reopening to allow them to make a return to international friendlies would benefit the side heading into Birmingham later this month.

"Those games are crucial to us," he said.

"While New Zealand was a good experience, we haven't tested ourselves against a tier one opponent since the Olympics. So these five games practice matches will be critically important for us to figure out exactly where we are and where we need to improve.

"The practice games beforehand are going to set us up nicely in terms of what we want to do."

The Australian side will face South Africa, New Zealand, Scotland and Pakistan in their pool as they chase a seventh straight Games gold medal.

The side swept their Kiwi counterparts in a four-games series in June, and the Black Sticks are their highest ranked opponent in their group stage.

Charter, however, said each of their opponents deserved respect, as anything could happen.

"South Africa gave Holland a run for their money in the Olympics," he said.

"So we can't go out there and be complacent, otherwise we might find ourselves down a match and it gets really hard for the quarterfinal stage."

In the new look Kookaburras team, following their silver medal in Tokyo, there will be eight Games debutants heading to Birmingham.

Whilst there is a lot of new faces, including five players with under 20 national caps to their name heading to Europe, Charter said the did not need much guidance.

"The core leadership group has done a lot to support those guys coming in, but there's big kudos to the group for being supremely self-managed.

"We all understand the values that we hold true to ourselves and what we measure ourselves on, so these new guys have been training with us for at least six to 12 months now and they've come into the group really well and assimilated really well into what we're trying to do as a group.

"So we haven't needed to be too proactive from a mentorship perspective, but they're doing exactly what we want them to be doing. I'm excited to see some of these guys out there."

A key element to help them get across the line in Birmingham to add to their medal tally comes down to one thing for Charter.

Professionalism.

He said they need to maintain their professionalism and their focus throughout the tournament, given the lack of international play they have had in the last three years.