Hockey: Black Sticks primed for Olympic qualifiers

With Olympic qualification already secure, the Black Sticks men's and women's sides will use next month's three-test series against Australia as the chance to gain valuable experience and world ranking points.

The Oceania region has two Olympic allocations courtesy of world rankings for both men and women. With Fiji having pulled out, it gives Australia and New Zealand automatic qualification to the London games. What were billed as qualifiers will now be a three-test series between the two rivals.

Black Sticks women's coach Mark Hager has named an experienced team for the games, selecting the same 18 players who beat Australia in pool play and went on to win bronze at the 2011 Champions Trophy in July in Amsterdam.

"This will be a hard-fought series against a top team,'' Hager said. "There is so much rivalry between these two sides. With us ranked sixth and Australia ranked seventh, we will need to win the series in order to hold our position.''

Black Sticks men's coach Shane McLeod has chosen a very experienced men's team with players like Phil Burrows, Blair Hopping and Dean Couzins, who total 730 test caps between them, in the 18-man squad.

Australia are world champions and McLeod will use the matches as good preparation for their build up to the Champions Trophy being held at North Harbour in early December.

"This Olympic qualifier forms a key component of our preparation towards Champions Trophy and will allow us to test our game against a world champion, gold medal team,'' McLeod said.

"Australia play with pace and aggression. They are clinical in attack and punish other teams for their errors. We will need to match their aggression and pace, increase our scoring opportunities and finish off the opportunities we create.''

Both teams will be based in Auckland in the week prior to the Oceania Cup.

"To have the team centralised for a week will help us work on our set plays and game strategy before we leave for Hobart,'' McLeod said.

The Black Sticks 2012 London Olympic teams will be announced in June next year.

 

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