KEY POINTS:
Another heap of experience walked out the door yesterday as Bevan Hari and Gareth Brooks followed goalkeeper Paul Woolford in announcing their retirement from international hockey.
Between them, the Black Sticks trio claimed more than 450 caps, leaving coach Shane McLeod short on strike power.
In playing 215 times for his country, Hari joined Ryan Archibald, Phil Burrows, Umesh Parag, Darren Smith and Simon Towns in the exclusive "200 club". Of his contemporaries, only Burrows, Simon Child and Hayden Shaw scored more than Hari's 47 goals.
Hari and Archibald first played for New Zealand against Malaysia in Whangarei in 1997 - Bryce Collins was also set to make his debut that day but, sadly, as was the case throughout his career, injury intervened.
Brooks, 29, who played more than 100 games and scored more than 20 goals, came into the international fold in 2002 with his debut against Belgium and, like many of his era, lists silver at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games as a career highlight.
Hari, who led Auckland in last week's National Hockey League, says, at 33 years, it is time "to give more time to his work and get in some more fishing".
As well as winning silver in Manchester, those Games gave Hari what he rates as his personal highlight scoring twice as the Black Sticks thrashed Pakistan 7-1 to get into the final.
"My most memorable goal came in the opening four minutes when I scored with a reverse stick shot which put us 2-0 ahead after Ryan [Archibald] had scored," said Hari. Like Woolford, Hari rates the failure to win through to the Sydney 2000 Olympics as his biggest disappointment.
Hari said he was lucky in getting through his long career relatively injury free. "Apart from eight months out when I got my knee badly smashed in the 2004 NHL, I was pretty lucky," said Hari who made his debut under Keith Gorringe and later had Robin Wilson, Kevin Towns and Shane McLeod as coaches.
Brooks, born in Christchurch, also played for Auckland as well as spending a year in Holland. He has moved to Wellington and played for them in last week's NHL. He says his greatest disappointment was losing to Great Britain at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and the highlight playing at the 2004 Athens Olympics where New Zealand came sixth.
