Shane McLeod
The pace is picking up for the Olympic hopefuls in the
New Zealand men's hockey squad.
From the 27 players who will get game time in this week's
five-test series against the sixth-ranked Koreans, coach
Shane McLeod will eventually name his 16 for the London
Olympics.
The Black Sticks warmed up for the matches against the team
one place higher than them on latest FIH rankings with a
series of unofficial matches against Japan played on the new
blue turf at Westlake Girls' High School.
New Zealand won three and lost two of the six matches - the
third was drawn 2-2 - but McLeod admitted his players were "a
bit rusty".
There will be no excuses when the pace picks up in the series
against Korea.
"We need to ask more questions of the players. We are back
into a test environment [against Korea] and have our sights
firmly set on the Olympics.
"Against Japan we were more concerned about the way we played
rather than the results," McLeod said.
"The blue turf, being new, has yet to settle and was quite
bouncy and led to a lot of turnover ball."
All Black Sticks players, including goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex
who did not play against Japan, are in Auckland this weekend.
McLeod expected the Koreans to be much better than Japan.
"They have been in the top six for a long time and will be
much more patterned in their play then the Japanese. Having
said that, the Japanese defended very well."
The visitors won the last of the six games 4-0 which
disturbed McLeod a little, saying "we got caught out".
After the matches against Korea, New Zealand players will
break and be restricted to mainly weekend camps until April
16 when 25 players will be centralised in Auckland.
Three weeks before the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament in May,
McLeod will name an 18-strong squad which he said should be
85%-90% of the eventual Olympic team.
"We will then play three tests against Australia in Australia
in late June after which we will name the 18 players who will
go to Europe for final preparations.
"After matches against Belgium and Holland in Belgium and
Spain and Germany at the Olympic venue, we will select the 16
for the Olympics."
Black Sticks v Korea
Lloyd Elsmore Hockey Stadium
Saturday -
1.30pm
Sunday - 1.30pm
Thursday - 6.30pm
February - 113pm
February - 123pm
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.