N.Z. hockey goal-keeper announces retirement

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 44

N.Z. hockey goal-keeper announces retirement

By

KEVIN TUTTY

The isolation of Central Otago and injury problems have combined to persuade the New Zealand hockey goal-keeper, Maurice Marquet, to retire., Marquet was forced to move from Auckland to Lawrence in Central Otago this year. It was the only place" he and his wife, who are both teachers, could get positions. He returned from the Intercontinental Cup in Kuala Lumpur late last month with the intention .of continuing his career by travelling to Dunedin each week-end to

However he has since reconsidered his decision and said yesterday that after much thought he had decided to retire. The main consideration was problems he has had with his knees in the last couple of years.

‘They Jock on me. - ’ said Marquet. "Last year it happened twice. Once for each knee. Since I have been down here where the weather is much colder, I have noticed them moving around a lot more.

“After it happened the first time I went into hospital. A leading orthopaedic surgeon told me I was in no danger. I also went to Lloyd Drake and he told me I had mobile knees. But I can’t help thinking that if they keep locking I am doing some damage.” The worry of injury' combined with a 180 km return trip to Dunedin each weekend were enough to convince Marquet that it was time to quit.

“Having to travel into Dunedin was a deterrent. It would have taken a complete day out of my week-end and more if I was playing representative hockey.”

. At 27 Marquet is still young enough to make a

comeback when he gets back to a hockey centre, and he has not discounted that possibilitv.

Marquet first played for New Zealand in 1977.’He was called into the national side after it lost the first test. 1-2. to Australia, at Auckland. He played his first international at Perth in the fourth match of the series, a game New Zealand lost. 3-4.

Since then Marquet. who has played 13 internationals and was regarded as the team’s No. 1 goalie, has seen several changes in the style of New Zealand goal-keeping. “I had to change my style to come up to world standards and I think I have done that successfully' in the last three years. I "had to stop rushing out to ■ the ball without any thought of what I was going to do when I reached it.

"What I and other goalkeepers have had to do is stay on our goal-line, more in the style of the goalies of previous eras, such as Trevor Manning and Ross McPherson, and venture away from the goal only when it was absolutely necessary,” said Marquet.

Marquet learned his hockey in Christchurch. He played for SydenhamCashmere as a schoolboy, the Canterbury Hatch Cup team, and Linwood High School. He has always been a goalkeeper.

“I was not the typical fat kid who couldn’t play the game and was given the pads. I met only one of the criteria,” said Marquet. one of the trimmest players in provincial .hockey.

He played for Redcliffs for a year before moving to Auckland where he was selected for the provincial team in 1976. He then had to wait only a year for national honours.