Women’s hockey team not cut and dried

Press, 7 January 1983, Page 8

Women’s hockey team not cut and dried

By

KEVIN TUFTY

Established players will not be able to afford any complacency in the three days of trials, starting in Auckland on Sunday, to choose the New Zealand women’s hockey team for the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in April.

The coach of the team and a member of the four-woman selection panel. Mrs Margaret Hiha. of Napier, issued that warning this week.

“People have said to me that we won’t have to make many changes to the team that toured the United States and Great Britain (last October). But there are some very good players who were not on that tour who could force their way into the final side.”

Two players in that category who immediately come to mind are the Canterbury forwards, Judith Phillips and Shirley Haig. Both have played for New Zealand with distinction previously, and still possess the skill and fitness to force their way back into the World Cup team.

Mrs Hiha and her fellow selectors, Mrs Paddy Jenkins (Otago), Shirley Eddy (Hawke’s Bay) and Gladys O’Brien (Waikato), have named 25 players for the trials.

They start on Sunday morning with a fitness test

and the remaining two days and a half will be devoted mainly to games. The team will be named on Tuesday evening and the 16 players chosen and two non-travel-ling reserves will stay in Auckland until Saturday for four days of intensive coaching.

Several games on the tour to Britain and the United States were played on artificial surfaces, and Mrs Hiha now knows the need for fitness if the team is to succeed in Kuala Lumpur where an artificial surface will be used. Any player who lacks fitness at the trials will count themselves out of the final deliberations. Neither the defence or attack operated as efficiently as Mrs Hiha would have liked in October. She will be urging defenders to mark more closely in the trials, and at the same time asking the forwards to slip their markers and find space for themselves more readily. “One of our biggest problems in Britain and the States was that we were not getting enough passes to our forwards, and when we did the forwards were not in a position to receive them.”

The team’s penalty-comer combination operated more fluently during the tour than

it did at the international tournament in Palmerston North last May, but Mrs Hiha believes it still needs some work. Lesley Monk has developed into a fluent striker. She makes up for a lack of size with superb timing, and the team had several variations which were successful overseas.

Responsibility for the final line of defence will fall on Lesley Murdoch and Barbara Tilden. They have been the New Zealand goal-keepers for the last two years, and being the only two chosen for the trials, are unchallenged. Three players. Mary Clinton. Sue McLeish and Robyn Blackman should be untroubled to retain their places in the defence. The other four positions are not so cut and dried. Judy Rawcliffe, Faye Matthews, Jill Smith and Sandra Mackie will all have to play to their best to withstand challenges to their places from Jane Goulding (Auckland). Sally Wood (Otago). Isobelle ’ Thomson (Canterbury), Trish Mcßride (Waikato) and Letticia Williams (Wellington).

Thomson’s unflustered and thoughtful play was an asset for Canterbury last season, and if she can reproduce similar form in Auckland.

could earn herself a place in the team.

Goulding, the Auckland centre-half, is a steady player. The selectors could well look to her as a replacement in the centre for Blackman. allowing the latter to return to right-half where she was outstanding for New Zealand at the international tournament in Palmerston North last year.

Competition for the forward positions will be especially keen. Henrietta Carroll (Canterbury) is the only forward of the 11 chosen who has not been chosen for New Zealand. Jenny McDonald, the ageless New Zealand captain, whose form, fitness and skill remain remarkably consistent. is a logical choice. So too are Monk and Harina Kohere. who have matured quickly in the last year. The other four places will be keenly fought, but the skill and experience of Phillips. Haig. Cheryl Childs (nee Law) and Jan Martin will give them an advantage over Carroll, Cathy Thompson. Debbie Julian and Gail Rodburn.

The final 16 could be:— Murdoch. Tilden; Blackman, McLeish. Clinton. Thomson, Rawcliffe. Mackie. Goulding; McDonald, Monk, Kohere, Phillips, Haig, Martin and Childs.