Hockey: Hager knows the formula for trophy success

Mark Hager enjoyed a fine playing career. Photo / Dean Purcell

If Black Sticks men's coach Shane McLeod is looking for advice leading into this week's Champions Trophy, he could do worse than take a wander down the corridors at Hockey New Zealand.

A few doors down sits Mark Hager - current coach of the New Zealand women's team - and the Australian has one of the all time great records in the competition.

Hager played in 11 Champions Trophy tournaments between 1985 and 1996 and was part of four victorious Australian campaigns (1985, 1989, 1991 and 1993). He scored 32 goals in the event, a record that stood for nine years until it was broken by Pakistan's Sohail Abbas in 2004. Dutch player Taeke Taekema is the current recordholder with 46.

"My first tournament was at home in Perth and it was a great start," Hager remembers, "we beat Great Britain to win gold. It wasn't always that way but I was lucky enough to play in a few finals [seven in total]."

The trophy is a solid silver hockey stick, weighing 5kg.

"Obviously there is no capacity to drink beer from it," laughs Hager, "but it has lots of wear and tear over the years. I'm sure it was left behind a couple of times in various hotels."

Among his favourite memories are playing in front of huge crowds of 25,000 in Pakistan - during the 1980s the tournament was played there six times - and a play-off against the Dutch in Amsterdam in 1987. Among the few low points were the rare occasions where the Kookaburras finished outside the medals - only three times across 11 years.

Hager's recipe for success is straightforward but requires detailed preparation: "It sounds basic but in this tournament you have to take things game by game," says Hager. "You also can't afford any slip-ups; With this format you could lose one game at the start and then you would be chasing after that. You need to know your opposition inside out and be able to adapt quickly within a match."

The format promotes a classic sporting contest and every game is set to be tight. The eight teams are divided into two pools (New Zealand is grouped with Germany, Korea and the Netherlands) and play each other on a round-robin basis. The top two from each pool then progress to the second group phase, where they play the two teams from the other pool before subsequent play-offs for gold and bronze. Meanwhile, the bottom two nations from each of the initial pools are relegated into a 'plate' competition; they play three more matches each but can finish no higher than fifth.

"It's pretty cut-throat," says Hager, "and there is no real room for error or a late charge. "

The tournament runs from Saturday to December 11 at North Harbour.