Hockey: All in the drag flick

New Zealand men's coach Kevin Towns is experiencing a sense of deja vu as he prepares his baby-faced 'Baby Sticks' line-up to meet Malaysia in the home test series starting on Tuesday.

Among the freshest of the 10 faces are three teenagers - the aptly-named Simon Child (16), Hamish Baron (18) and Richard Petherick (18).

Child is in his last year at King's College. He will be only the third schoolboy to play for New Zealand and the second youngest. Child has leap-frogged into the team on the basis of his age-group performances but did not make the Auckland NZ Hockey League side last October.

The League doubled as a trial and national squads were named at its conclusion but Child had shown enough potential at age-group level to be given a punt.

He's thrilled with the call-up: "I wasn't expecting to make the squad last year and I thought the bigger guys would play against the Malaysians so I am really excited. I just want to do myself proud," he said.

Baron finished at Auckland Grammar last year after captaining his team to the Rankin Cup title, (hockey's premier schoolboy competition). He is also a striker.

Baron was still at school when he played for Auckland last year, something which eluded Auckland coach Ian Woodley, who was surprised to find out one afternoon that Baron was at school when he had hoped to catch up with him.

Petherick is an option being considered by Towns around the drag flick - a vital scoring device - and any player who can master it can guarantee his starting position.

The majority of corners are built around the drag flick. New Zealand converted just over 40 per cent of corners at the Athens Olympics (with the assistance of Hayden Shaw, now playing cricket for Canterbury). Just under half of all their goals were scored from corners at the same tournament.

Like Shaw, Petherick is a big, hard-hitting defender. Another is 22-year-old Brad Shaw (Hayden's brother), who was introduced to international play at last December's Champions Trophy but didn't get a lot of game time. Established options include Harbour striker Dave Kosoof.

However, this is the second time in his current five-year stretch as national coach that Towns has had to draw together a 'Baby Sticks' line-up with an average age that only just qualifies them to go into pubs.

Towns named a similarly youthful side in 2000 to play against Argentina, Pakistan and Malaysia, although that team had a bigger core of experienced players.

From there, he built the solid unit that stabilised over the last couple of years to become a world-class threat. But, with 10 of the players that took New Zealand to a creditable sixth place at Athens unavailable for the Malaysian series, Towns finds himself at the bottom of the inevitable rebuilding cycle faced by all sports.

But he is keen to see how his young players cope at international level. "They have been selected on the strength of their skill level. I want to see where they are internationally as we go forward towards the Beijing Olympics."

Both sides are preparing for the 2006 World Cup qualifying tournament in April in China. That tournament will be preceded by the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, meaning a busy start to 2006 for New Zealand.

The first test is in Albany on Tuesday night, the second on Thursday night in Hamilton, with the final two tests the following Saturday and Sunday afternoons at Lloyd Elsmore, Auckland.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY