Commonwealth Games: Black Sticks rue lack of depth in both teams

It does seem as though fine-tuning is the answer considering how close the Black Sticks often come. Photo / Greg Bowker

New Zealand will become accustomed to bronze medal matches at hockey tournaments unless they produce more players of a higher quality.

That's the view of both the men's and women's Black Sticks after they failed to achieve their long-stated goals of reaching the gold medal match at the Glasgow Games.

It is becoming a recurring theme for hockey in this country. Both sides have shown plenty of potential leading into blue ribbon tournaments but disappointments are more common than appearances on the top of the dais.

So what can be done to change the trend of underwhelming performances in the biggest of matches?

"I think it comes down in the end that we didn't have enough good players," said men's coach Colin Batch. "The semifinal's always another step up and we didn't deliver."

Kayla Whitelock, captain of the women's side, agreed with that assessment, pointing to a lack of depth as the difference between the Black Sticks and the top nations.

"Those other teams are well-funded and live together and train together and we can't compete with that. But we need to develop better depth in our game so we have more young players coming through.

"That would leave us under pressure for our places and that's always a good thing when you get to a tournament like this."

It does seem as though fine-tuning is the answer, as opposed to a complete overhaul, considering how close the Black Sticks often come. Getting over the line, men's captain Phil Burrows explained, would be about minor adjustments instead of massive changes.

"The first thing we have to realise is there's not much between the top eight teams in the world, and you have to be at the top of your game to be there ...

"We touched on that you have to have consistency throughout tournaments. We got pretty close to that but we haven't quite got there."