Hockey: Tour aids Towns to hone Athens selection

By DAVID LEGGAT

Mission just about accomplished. That was national men's coach Kevin Towns' reaction to New Zealand's four-game trip to Perth as the countdown intensifies ahead of the naming of the 16-strong hockey squad for the Athens Olympics.

New Zealand had a win, a loss and two draws against a competitive Australian Institute of Sport team last week as part of an 11-day training camp in Western Australia.

Towns had hoped the tour would help clarify the selectors' thinking on the make-up of the squad for the Olympics.

Most places were finalised, but some spots could still have rolled either way. Trips that essentially double as selection trials can help or hinder the selection process but Towns said this one worked for himself and fellow selectors Charlie Oscroft and John Christensen.

"It became pretty clear while we were over there," Towns said.

"We came away with guys very close to each other in terms of what they could offer the team. The competition has been tremendous and it's clarified the situation.

"The players that are really, really close will know when the final team is announced that they'd either done enough on this tour to have secured their place, or hadn't quite done enough. Deep down they'll know."

The tour proved beneficial for three players coming back from injury - captain Simon Towns, midfielder Ryan Archibald and striker Bevan Hari. Towns and Archibald played roughly half a game each time as they recover from muscle strains, while Hari, returning after a knee reconstruction, was used sparingly.

All showed good progress, and Towns also has good news about Auckland defender Dean Couzins, whose operation to repair a broken ankle has gone well. Towns expects he will be back on the bike this week and into solid training in about four weeks.

After drawing the first two games, 3-3 and 1-1 in Perth, New Zealand lost the third 4-1, the only goal coming from extended national squad member Simon Munt, who is based in Perth and was wheeled in to help the injury-hit squad.

Towns did not use penalty corner specialist Hayden Shaw for any of New Zealand's seven penalty corners in the game, preferring to try different options. Shakiness at the back in a rejigged unit did not help either.

However, New Zealand won the final game 2-0 with goals from Shaw and Archibald. Midfielder Archibald, with a century of caps behind him, finished up spending part of the game as a striker as another injury took Canterbury's Gareth Brooks out with a slight groin strain.

Towns said it was likely the squad would be named next Sunday after another training match in Auckland before being released through the New Zealand Olympic Committee. The women's Olympic squad was named this month.

ON TOUR

NZ v Australia Institute of Sport

Game one: Drew 3-3

Game two: Drew 1-1

Game three: Lost 4-1

Game four: Won 2-0