Hockey: Women's team determined not to follow men's example at league semifinal

Samantha Charlton of the Blakc Sticks. Photo / NZME.

New Zealand are determined not to follow the men's Black Sticks lead and make Rio Olympic qualifying harder for themselves than it need be, when they start their World League semifinal in Antwerp, Belgium tonight.

The women's team, ranked fourth in the world, kick off against lowly Poland, but coach Mark Hager is sure motivation won't be an issue through the tournament. "You can never rest on your laurels or expect that just because your ranking is that high you're going to be in the top three, so we just want to build to the quarter-final," Hager said from Antwerp.

The format has pool matches being used to finalise placings ahead of a quarter-final draw of crossover games. That's where the men's Black Sticks came unstuck in Buenos Aires a few days ago, losing a marathon penalty shootout of 28 attempts against Canada, ranked seven places lower, after a scoreless draw.

That result, combined with a subsequent lacklustre 3-1 loss to Spain, four places behind New Zealand, might yet bite their Rio chances. Although they know full well how the men's campaign came unstuck, the women have their own ideas.

"The girls basically said they didn't want us as a coaching staff to compare themselves with the men," said Hager, who is no fan of the one-off quarter-final format, which he believes does not necessarily reward earlier success in the tournament.

"We saw that can be a lottery. The opposition defence can play well, their keeper has a blinder and all of a sudden you're in trouble.

"Obviously you learn lessons from it, but we are here in our own right and just need to concentrate on ourselves, put our plans in action and have belief we can play well and perform when it really counts."

New Zealand, the second-highest ranked team at the event, have had a skinny preparation. Since the Festival of Hockey tournament in Hastings in April, the Black Sticks have had just two practice games against the world No 1 Dutch this week, both lost, but both offering good indicators of how much improvement is needed.

"We were just getting off the plane and we knew they would really expose us and allow us to identify our weaknesses. Putting our structures in place, that's the biggest thing," Hager added.

Pool A consists of world champions the Netherlands, Korea, Japan, Italy and Azerbaijan. The top three teams at the tournament are guaranteed spots at next year's Rio Olympics.