KEY POINTS:
Hockey New Zealand is treading a well-worn path in appointing highly rated Australian Mark Hager as national women's coach.
Hager, 44, takes over from long-serving Blacks Sticks coach Kevin Towns, who followed Australian Ian Rutledge into that role after Rutledge quit.
Like Rutledge, who had issues with some
players in the national side and has since returned to Australia, Hager has worked at the Australian Institute of Sport. Unlike Rutledge, Hager carved out an impressive international playing record and has more recently been coaching at the highest level across the Tasman.
At his best, Hager was regarded as the top central striker in the world. He played 230 tests for his country, scoring an impressive 179 goals - a record for any player, male or female, in Australia.
He won World Cup gold in 1986 in London and bronze eight years later in Sydney. Two years later he was a member of the bronze medal-winning team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He retired after those Games. In 10 years from 1985, Hager won gold at four Champions Trophy tournaments.
In July he was among the first players inducted into Hockey Australia's Hall of Fame along with former high performance manager for New Zealand Cricket Ric Charlesworth, who has returned to Australia to coach their national men's team.
Hager was assistant coach of the Kookaburras at this year's Beijing Olympics and has had experience in coaching Australian women's teams in the past. He was assistant women's coach at the 2004 Athens Olympics and for their gold medal-winning team at the 2003 Champions Trophy.
Hager's appointment comes at a testing time for Hockey New Zealand, which this week had its Sparc funding for the Black Sticks women pulled from under it.
Despite this crippling setback, chief executive Ramesh Patel is determined the women's programme should continue, with the team set to play the Oceania Cup in August and the Champions Challenge in November.
"Hockey New Zealand's confirmation of Mark's appointment is also confirmation that the Black Sticks women will still have a meaningful campaign in 2009," said Patel. "That confirmation helped secure his appointment. We are delighted someone with his wealth of playing and coaching experience has come on board."
Hager, who will be joined in New Zealand by his wife, an Olympic gold medallist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and three daughters, will join Hockey NZ in mid-January.
