Hockey: Coach looks back to the future

By TERRY MADDAFORD

National coach Kevin Towns is torn as he prepares to watch four weeks of intense national league hockey.

It had been expected that a number of long-serving internationals would retire after the Athens Olympics. Others were expected to give the league a miss and take a well-earned break.

A top-six finish in Greece ended such plans.

Towns, keen to take as strong a team as possible to the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in December, has decreed that all New Zealand-based players must play at least the last weekend of the Lion Foundation National League to be considered for the six-team tournament.

Drag flick expert Hayden Shaw is out after committing himself to cricket this summer.

Others, including captain Simon Towns, 200-match international Umesh Parag, Darren Smith, Dion Gosling and Wayne McIndoe were considering retirement.

Towns hopes they will reconsider. "I must look to take the strongest possible team to the Champions Trophy. It would be silly to send a baby team to the slaughter."

Simon Towns and James Nation (playing in England) and Phil Burrows and Dean Couzins (in Holland) will not be back but will be selected for Pakistan if available.

"Sure, I would have been happy if the players had announced their retirement or at least had a break and taken the time off while the league was being played," said Towns. "But now I can't see how players could expect to come back and be ready for such an important tournament without playing.

"We [Towns and his fellow selectors] will be watching the NHL with a 'Beijing attitude'. But there will also be an eye to making the changes we need to make for Pakistan.

"There is no Hayden Shaw, but Ryan Archibald will be back. We only had 16 players at the Olympics. We will take 18 this time. The NHL will play an important role in filling those gaps."

In his new high-performance role, Towns also has a watching brief with the women.

"I think they are already on track for Beijing. They had a relatively young side in Athens and most, I'm sure, will be around for the next Commonwealth Games, World Cup and the 2008 Olympics." Terry Maddaford