The 34-year-old will double up for Otago as a player-coach.
He has taken the reins from long-serving coach Dave Ross, who led the team to back-to-back national titles in 2022 and 2023.
Otago would very much like to hoist the Challenge Shield aloft again.
But Tarrant, who has played more the 250 games for his country, warned they were a very different team this year.
Key players such as Malachi Buschl and Nick Ross are missing from the lineup.
But while half the squad is new, the ambition is old.
"Of course that’s the goal," Tarrant responded when asked whether a threepeat was possible.
"But there’s nine new guys in the team this year. Unfortunately, some guys have moved on.
"There’s still a lot of experience in the group and, you know, the new guys coming in, they’re picked for a reason and I believe that they can do the job.
"But, yeah, it’s just about us managing the ups and downs of tournament."
Tarrant and Benji Culhane will lead the defence, while the Ward brothers, Patrick and Finn, bring some class to the midfield and James Nicholson is charged with banging in goals.
Otago have been drawn in pool A with Northland, Wellington and Waikato.
They open their campaign against Northland on Sunday.
"You’ve got to play well in your pool to get through and that’s all we’re looking at at this stage," Tarrant responded when asked about Otago’s title prospects.
"You need two wins in your pool to get to the next stage, and all three of those teams will be hard in different ways."
Canterbury and North Harbour shape as the toughest competition and they are both in pool B.
Otago beat Canterbury 5-2 at the Otautahi Cup in Christchurch two weeks ago. But they had a 5-3 loss to Canterbury B and needed a shootout to prevail against Wellington, so it was a mixed tournament for Otago.
Among the new faces, Daniel Torr is making the step up from the B side.
The attacking midfielder will be tasked with bringing "a bit of punch on attack for us". He has the ability to slip by tacklers and create defensive problems.
Central midfielder Charles Darling is a calm influence under pressure and a good distributor.
Jack Cotton will provide some extra firepower up front.
"Hopefully you’ll see his name on the scoresheet come the sharp end of the tournament."
"I feel really good about our preparation. I think that we’ve come a long way in the last kind of month.
"But it’s going to come down to us winning key moments and then getting better each match.
"We’re a young team. We’re not the team that we had last year, but it doesn’t mean we can’t do it."
Tarrant is enjoying his coaching stint and it might be the direction he moves towards in the future. It is perhaps also helping ease the disappointment of the Olympic campaign just a little.
The Black Sticks had been hoping to do well but lost all five games.
"It is a strange feeling, to be honest.
"Most of the time our performance level was high. We were just losing games, so I haven’t worked it out yet."
National Hockey League
Palmerston North, September 15-21
Otago men: Oliver Battrick, Zeke Buschl, Jaiden Chhika, Jack Cotton, Benji Culhane, Charles Darling, Felix McIntosh, Thomas Meder, James Nicolson, Hugh Nixon, Nick Parata, Blair Tarrant, Daniel Torr, Finn Ward, Jordan Ward (captain), Patrick Ward, Liam Williams, Joshua Wypych.
Otago’s draw
Sunday: v Northland
Monday: v Wellington
Tuesday: v Waikato
