Care needed in selecting Blake’s successor

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 30

Care needed in selecting Blake’s successor

By

KEVIN TUTTY

Trevor Blake’s reign as the New Zealand hockey coach concluded in mixed circumstances at the Indira Gandhi Gold Cup tournament in Lucknow, northern India, this month. The team left New Zealand on a hiding to nothing and had to be commended for its fourth placing. The spirit in the team would not have been at maximum when it left New Zealand.

It had only one day together before it left, while all its opponents in Lucknow had been together for several weeks. In addition arguments over the retaining of Mr Blake as coach following New Zealand’s exclusion from the Seoul Olympics, and the appointment of Ray Ganda as manager for the tour, would not have contributed to a secure team atmosphere at the start of the tour. But the team surmounted those problems and ensured itself of a place in the semi-finals at the tournament with a 3-0 win against Spain and a 31 win against Kenya. It lost its other pool match, against the eventual winner of the tournament, Pakistan, 0-4.

The win against Spain was not what it appeared. The Spanish team in Lucknow was a second XI. The top team was playing in a four nation tournament at home at the same time. Spain eventually finished the tournament in last place. It was at the play-off stages that New Zealand encountered problems. Instead of being in the final

it finished in fourth place. In its semi-final against the Soviet Union, New Zealand conceded two soft goals and eventually lost 0-3. That was in spite of having a penalty-corner advantage in the match of 6-2, and more than its share of possession in the mid-field.

Against South Korea, in the play-off for third and fourth, the situation was worse. The Koreans failed to reach the New Zealand circle in the first-half, but at the other end New Zealand was able to breach the Korean goal just once. Injuries to three key players within 10 minutes late in the first-half and early in the second-half, upset the New Zealand rhythm and it quickly found itself 1-2 down.

It fought back to 2-2 before the Koreans took the lead again. New Zealand, desperate to draw again set up a goal in the final minute, but Richard Schoeman, one of the new faces in the team, had the consternation to have the ball hit his leg on the way into the goal.

The tour was little different to others in recent times for the national team. For years now, even in the period building up to the golden day in Montreal in 1976, coaches have returned with tales of missed opportunities by New Zealand teams.

This will be only one of several problems that Mr Blake’s replacement will

have to address when he takes control of the national side in the next month or two. In the meantime the New Zealand Hockey Association will have some deep thinking to do before it makes the appointment of the person who will guide New Zealand for at least the next two years and possibly back into the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

The association must be absolutely sure that it appoints a person to the position who has the credentials to lift the national team back to a position of respectability. That will occur only if the players have faith in the coach and then in the selection panel. Too many players have been tossed into, and cast out of, the national squad because of the fickleness of the national selection panels. It has been to the players credit that they have managed to achieve some of the results they have, in such an unstable environment, in the last 10 years.

Besides ensuring they pick the right man to guide the team in this important re-development period, the N.Z.H.A. will have to look at ways of enabling the national squad to spend more training time together.

Mr Blake said on his return from Lucknow the national squad needed to spend time together at least three times a year, preferably for a week on

each occasion. That may mean more financial sacrifice by players who are already feeling the pinch from having to fork out for various tours, but such sacrifices will be necessary, at least initially, if New Zealand wants to avoid being shunted further down the international ranking ladder. As Peter Miskimmin, the New Zealand captain

said after the Lucknow* tournament, New Zealand is in danger of being overrun by developing hockey nations. Sponsorship is one answer to alleviate the financial problems, but until the national side can lift its international ranking it is unlikely to attract a sponsor for the team. It is a vicious cycle that is only likely to be broken by the type of financial commitment that members of the New Zealand women’s squad have been prepared to make.