Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Commonwealth Games hockey - "Malaysia's idea of match practice for Asian Games reinforces our current standing in international ranking".

Lack of match practice before the Asian Games, notwithstanding the tours to China, Australia and Europe, had got MHF to reset its position of sending a mix team of juniors and seniors to our best team for the Commonwealth Games (CWG). The idea being the CWG would provide a suitable tournament for good match practices for our team to the Asian Games, which is a key cog in world hockey qualifiers ie a direct entry to the 2012 London Olympics for the Asian Games hockey gold medallist. The CWG does not provide any form of such incentives.

Therefore Malaysia's silver in 1998 and bronze in 2006 CWGs may give the impression that our hockey lads were then only going to glorify themselves in non-consequential events. Not really, because it did contribute to the nation's medal haul, which is very important to the statisticians in NSC, who have to proudly present the figures to justify the huge resources spent in preparing the teams for both the Commonwealth Games. Somewhere this rationale seems to have gone astray for the 2010 CWG.

Today, after our "match practices" in the CWG in New Delhi, can we be proud of the fact the team came 8th out of 10 teams? 1stly on record this is our worst performance in the CWGs and maybe this could be justified because MHF had reset the CWG to "match practice" status. The interesting aspect is that the international ranking is kept quite intact as the Commonwealth hockey nations who are in the top 12 ensured that Malaysia was of no threat to them as they all were above the 8th spot. Does this mean that our boys are lacking the skill and playing ability to to be in the top 10 in the world? A difficult question to answer as the lads were on "practice match" mode and as such they may not have given their best.

Now i wonder whether the team management have a better idea of the performance of the lads and the team that they can make the timely adjustments to achieve their set target of "gold" for Asian Games. This is important as they may want to reset their target for the Asian Games as they had done for the CWG. Is the gold medal target a figment of imagination of MHF or is it something that is achievable?

Following the CWG, where we had loss to India and Pakistan, itself may put us out of reach of achieving the "golden" position in the Asian Games. In the round robin in our Group at the Asian Games we have to contend with South Korea and China who are above us in world ranking. The other team in the Group is Oman. Beating China would take us to the semis but we must recognise that they have well over a billion population behind them on a home ground advantage. Should we get to the semis, then there lies the hope, and it is not insurmontable, to make it to the final. The other Group has India, Pakistan, Japan and Singapore. The probable semi-finalists emerging from that Group would probably be India and Pakistan, both of who we had "practice matches" with in the current CWG and lost 3-2 and 4-1 respectively.

In a nutshell, the 2 coaches must know what to do, now that they are aware of the performance level of their players and the team following the "practice matches" at the CWG. The coaches have about 3 to 4 weeks to fine tune the team and work towards the "incredible" target of gold set by MHF. A tall order but somehow it seems to have been stuck as the KPI for the team. Mind you i do not envy the position Stephen and Beng Hai are currently in. All we can do is to wish the Malaysian team the very best for Asian Games.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steven and Beng Hai do not have the charisma of looking after the National Team.

Surely it is too late to ditch them but we must pray for devine intervention for Malaysia to win the 'Gold'.

Kneel all ye and pray. NOW

PIOUS HOCKEY FAN

Anonymous said...

Steven is a Failure, why not recall players like Ismail Abu, Selvaraju and get rid of passengers like jiwa Mohan.If this is the best we have, god save Malaysian Hockey.

Anonymous said...

Chandran,
Intelligent idea. This is good. Hockey lovers appreciate this comments.
102

Anonymous said...

Soon we will be getting foreign coach to guide our team. our players can perform only with foreign coach. The problem is with our coach or players....only God knows. Dharma will be assisting the new coach. The coach has been identified and will be flown in after Asian Games. A few of them is working hard and will propose the name to new MHF cabinet.
102

Anonymous said...

First, MHF must accept the reality of the situation, namely Malaysian former glory is not going to be achieved again unless drastic change is made. First and foremost, the grassroot competition must be overhauled to have each and every state a league of their own as well as school competition.

Then the talented youngsters are then sent to a similar set up as BJSS and BPSS to receive polishing coaching. Nutrition, sports psychology and biomechanics of the sports must be incalculated into the players. The players should also be exposed to as many international games via dvds and given tasks to analyse the games in their own words as to the positive and negative aspects of the games. Each and every opportunity to compete against any teams must be graspped with both hands and the best team must be sent irregardless. Forget about this talk of podium finish so as to not to put unnecessary pressure on the team. Let all the retired players be. Hear we are following the two failed Asian teams namely India which talk about podium finish for every campaign and Pakistan who seemed to have revive more dead careers than anyone else. Sohail, Saqlain, Waseem have been asked to come out of retirements more time than a souffle can rise. Coach the players to play instintive hockey where if the players are unmarked, you pass to them and no unnecessary dribbling. Make the ball do the work and not work the ball is a saying we have here in Australia. These are just few of the changes I can see must first be implemented. No point of the foreign coaches if the players have lots of bad habits. They also know of the lack of depth and therefore behave badly as they know bad behaviour will not be sanctioned. There is a player from a race which no longer plays this game and he has bad attitude despite having the potential to be the best player in the country or the country has produced. What happened? He thinks he is the greatest player on this earth and let his atttitude gets in the way and thank goodness he is no longer in the squad. This is the type of attitude Malaysian hockey does not need. My prediction for the Asian Games is that Malaysia with this squad will finish fourth. The champions will be Korea and maybe China as runners up or Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan despite having foreign coaches are still playing the old style hockey with lots of dribbling and lack of speed, strength and fitness. Foreign coaches are not the panache and in fact lots of these guys know that their impact or influence will be limited as the psyche cannot be changed overnight.

Anonymous said...

The games has just ended for Malaysian Hockey team.Now the nmanagment has to look up for new excuses to give for not performing.Its time for the coaching committee to write a book titlt "1001 excuses to give when you fail". The so called senior coaches must go to grassroot coaching , in order to understand the players well.The team has many good players, favaroutism, bias etc might be a cause for them nog performing. Look at Australia, year in year out the come up with new talent international standard. MHf please concentrate on the younger players, they are your future. Select officals based on merits, not favouritism.

Anonymous said...

lupekan sengketa lama..ambil balik ismail abu dalam team..dengar cerita ada jugak pemain yg kena tangkap di....tp kerana anak kesayangn jurulatih tiada tindakan diambil..itulah bala yg menimpa..hallo boss..you looking for crocodile hunterka??

Anonymous said...

Let go the national team and coach and mix up a new team with fresh blood from Project 2013. Let them grow and developed well.
Then, find 2 good european development coaches and permanently put them each at our 2 Sports School for our future. Fine tune the grass root. Our children need to be trained matured and learn how modern hockey been played at the very earliest age.
Look at BPSS. Their teacher coach dont even got any higher education which should be a must for high level game like hockey. He only care for money to pay his Caldina. Somebody should take action drastically as all this type of person will stay comfortly as long as he can to make money as lot as he can. Then, acting like Wayang Kulit only. Luckily, all the students there are specially selected. But sadly, no positive impact progression. So-so only. If put this teacher coach at normal school, surely he quit hockey and sell corn at pasar malam as part time. And off course just drive a proton car only.
Come on.. By the time we only focus to look forward, dont forget about our old path that need to be maintained and fine tuned!! Long time ago we dont have any sports school but still can did it well. Pls MHF/MSN, back to the beginning!! We are lost!!

GrassRoot

Anonymous said...

Dear MHF,
Pls make a limit for National Players at only 30 years old. No more 30s.
Give the chance to our youngsters! If lost also full of satisfaction coz they are still young and much to learn!

Anonymous said...

Dear Players,

Please play the STICK and the BALL.
The ball travels very much faster than you do and it does not get tired. But you do. Its silly for not maximising the dynamics of the stick. Its design very unique and scientifically strong to give you what you want. All you just need to is use xtras of your head.

Keep up to the latest way of playing. Speed, fitness, ball control, finding faults in the 'D' like J Dywer, PC, deflection, go all out to score when the ball is in the 'D' and many more.

Don't respect your opponents as it weakens you. This is an example of what happen to India and Australia in CWG final.

We don't need to have the world best coach to win. All you need is to give the best of yourself and your opponents will fear you.
BECAUSE winning is A B C D.

Your Attitude
Your Believe
Your character
Your Determination

What makes you think that the Aussies have it and you don't.
Why do you think that Koreans, India, China or Pakistans are more stronger than you. Its all in the HEAD.
So winning is all about yourself if you embrace it. Unless you choose to let it go.

Anonymous said...

reply to comment on October 15, 2010 9:41 PM

30yrs old?Do you know the team that has qualified for olympic and world cups before have more than 5 players above 30 years old. After the change to younger players in 2003,we did not qualify for any major event,why? we need to have mix players,the older to absorb pressure and the younger to work harder. Just look at last year national league,which players played the major role in their team. The younger generation is hopeless,they dont have the character to play hockey. they more interested in money only. money,money,money.
younger generation is good in playing video games only.

Video game promoter

Anonymous said...

Ghandhi,

Why must we Malaysians feel scary to play in the homegrounds of other teams. You said "we are going to face 1 billion populations behind the China team on their homeground advantage in the Asian games'

We must be prepared mentally to face any kind of pressure. There were no excuses for the Australlians to play behind a huge roar of the Indians and the 1 billion hardcore supporters. The Aussies played in their hottest ever match which was also an added advantage for the Indians to take the Aussies. There was no signs of fear neither were the Australlians pausing the the field. They were strong all the way. The 8th 'last minute' goal was an example that the australlians played every second in the field without giving any chance to their opponents to move. This is what lacking in most of the teams who tend to slow down aftr scoring their first or second goal.

Go for GOLD.
Go for GOLD.
go for GOLD......

Anonymous said...

DEFINATELY WE WILL HAVE PLAYERS WHO BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES.DEFINATELY WE WILL HAVE MENTALLY STRONG PLAYERS. IT IS EITHER THE COACHES WHO DONT BELIEVE THEM OR HAVE SOME OTHER REASONS FOR EXCLUDING THEM.IT IS MORE FACESAVING TO LOSE ON ANY OTHER FACT OTHER THAN NOT HAVING INTELIGENT OR STRONG MINDED PLAYERS.

Shankar Ramu said...

Now where do I start... (Part 1)
There are so many comments easily written but sadly most of them do not make sense & truly impracticable.
Let’s just take these 2 quotes from some comments in this article, which practically sums up all others made in this blog:
“Malaysian former glory is not going to be achieved again” & “via DVDs & given tasks to analyse the games in their own words”-Anonymous Oct 14
“limit for National Players at only 30 yrs old. No more 30s.”-Anonymous Oct15
Everybody talks about “former Malaysian glory”, “our ex-level in world hockey”, “how good we use to be” - Where have you been??
Malaysia has only finished ONCE above an 8th placed finish in the 12 World Cups in the history of hockey. This was the 4th place in a World Cup 35 years ago (that too was due to the unexpected 2-1 win over Holland in the final group stage match).
The best part is almost the same 16 players go to the Montreal Olympics a year later & where do they finish? Yes, 8th! 8th is the best ever finish by Malaysia in any Olympics but everyone spins & fumes when we don’t qualify (i.e. lower than 12th) or even finish a “dismal” 9th (ONE place lower than the best finish).
Please can ANYONE tell me where are these “former Malaysian glory days” which I seem to have missed!
What’s the best have we finished in an Asian Games? Bronze. There you go, as simple as that. We have NEVER finished any higher. Now we are targeting a Gold medal finish for this upcoming Games and it apparently would be a “disaster” if we don’t! Yes, we should set a high target and it certainly is an achievable gold. But don’t place the team’s head (coach, players & mgmt) on the chopping block.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like or dislike Stephen V Huizen - I hate him. Played with him in the national team & he was the asst. coach of the team when I played as well. As an individual, I simply hate him. As a coach, I easily think he’s the best coach we’ve got at the moment. As for Tai Beng Hai, he is unquestionably not an international coach & it would be a disgrace to speak further about him in my article!
All the other coach candidates mentioned in corresponding comments are just not up to where we need for our team to get back into the highest level (i.e. World Cup & Olympics). They “may” get us there but it would not be consistent. I’ve played with most of them (Sarjit, Dharma, Vicky, etc....the only one I’ve never worked with was Rajan) and know their level of mentality, man management and professionalism. None of them are close to what we need.
This only points towards one direction - a foreign coach. It truly was an eye-opener for me when Terry Walsh took our national team for 4 yrs (’90-’93) & the 5 months under Lissek before CG ’98. The changes implemented were drastically different. It was simply far from what I had seen in any of the other coaches in my life. I’d been coached by Sri Shan, Dato’ Yoges, school coaches & my Jr W-Cup coaches, believe me they are all not far from each other. There is no distinct difference in their coaching (technically or strategically). The only foreign coach we had who I would rank as average is Volker Knapp. Unfortunately, he was the closest friend of mine.
Invest huge MHF and get one of the best coaches available on a long term. PAY. Don’t forget that not every coach is dying to get to our place.

Shankar Ramu said...

Now where do I start.. (Part 2)

“Players to analyse DVDs”! You certainly have not been with the Malaysian team, have you?
There are only a handful (i.e. less than half of any bunch of 16 players I worked with in 11 years of my int’l career) who could actually dissect a match. Let it be a goal conceded, scored or in any midfield play. Definitely a bunch of players (let it be a school, state age-group, club or national team) should be given such a task, but the bottom line is we do NOT have that level of mentality in our team & most certainly not in all these “anonymous” comments writers.

Limit the age group in our National Team?!? What’s wrong with you?
Best 2 ever teams to have played & won the World Cup or Olympics were the ’82 WC Pakistan & ’92 OG German squads. Were all those players in each team below 30? Were they all above 30? NO! They had a balanced squad in terms of age (i.e. experience), but all the same there’s no steadfast rule either way. We all know what Alan Hansen got smashed on his face with his comments on the Man Utd ‘95/’96 “school boys’ team”.

This CG ’10 was the first tourney I watched quite intensely after almost 8 years. We certainly do have a shot against India & Pakistan. We didn’t finish as expected (or targeted) but more importantly those 2 teams evidently are not as what they use to be. I watched every minute of our games and I must say our boys did play their guts out in every match. I disagree with some comments who singled out players who apparently played their hearts out and some who didn’t. We do not have a great, neither a very good team. There aren’t any “thinking” players in there who could change the play and reads opponents clearly. But, we do have a strong PC unit and that is a significant factor.
I know in the Asian Games, Korea & China comes first for us, but I can’t say a thing about them, as it’ll be b*#ls#@t because I’ve not watched them play enough.

As for team disruption, there is no reason to bring in a player into a squad 2-3 weeks before any tourney when he has not been in training throughout the team-building process. Unless, he is one who could change a game or considerably uplift the squad. Sadly, Jiwa Mohan does not qualify in this category. He was not a passenger, but neither was he even slightly more than average. That’s a fact.

MHF? Please do not allow an ex-office boy of a bank to be our Deputy President. He may certainly be working and contributing a lot for MHF but there is a need for an individual with a certain level of integrity and dignity to hold the DP’s post. He would fit the mould of a VP almost perfectly. It would be easy for me to make this comment but I know the difficulty in getting someone with all these 3 attributes.... sincerely hard working, integrity and dignity.
As for the secretary’s post, this would not require an Einstein to tell us that we NEED someone who can speak English without the rest of us feeling ashamed when we are a country who does hold international matches on a regular basis. Please show him the door. PLEASE I beg someone with enough desire to hold this position to stand up and tell the President you want it. Yes, he decides but transparently do tell him so. We’ve had enough of all those back room talks.

Hope all this would provide some direction for MHF and more importantly our team.
Get us to the 2012 Olympics!

Shankar Ramu said...

Now where do I start... (Part 1) - Please re-print my Part 1 comment

There are so many comments easily written but sadly most of them do not make sense & truly impracticable.

Let’s just take these 2 quotes from some comments in this article, which practically sums up all others made in this blog:

1. “Malaysian former glory is not going to be achieved again” & “via DVDs & given tasks to analyse the games in their own words”-Anonymous Oct 14
2. “limit for National Players at only 30 yrs old. No more 30s.”-Anonymous Oct15

Everybody talks about “former Malaysian glory”, “our ex-level in world hockey”, “how good we use to be” - Where have you been??

Malaysia has only finished ONCE above an 8th placed finish in the 12 World Cups in the history of hockey. This was the 4th place in a World Cup 35 years ago (that too was due to the unexpected 2-1 win over Holland in the final group stage match).

The best part is almost the same 16players go to the Montreal Olympics a year later & where do they finish? Yes, 8th! 8th is the best ever finish by Malaysia in any Olympics but everyone spins & fumes when we don’t qualify (i.e. lower than 12th) or even finish a “dismal” 9th (ONE place lower than the best finish).

Please can ANYONE tell me where are these “former Malaysian glory days” which I seem to have missed!

What’s the best have we finished in an Asian Games? Bronze. There you go, as simple as that. We have NEVER finished any higher. Now we are targeting a Gold medal finish for this upcoming Games and it apparently would be a “disaster” if we don’t! Yes, we should set a high target and it certainly is an achievable gold. But don’t place the team’s head (coach, players & mgmt) on the chopping block.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like or dislike Stephen V Huizen - I hate him. Played with him in the national team & he was the asst. coach of the team when I played as well. As an individual, I simply hate him. As a coach, I easily think he’s the best coach we’ve got at the moment. As for Tai Beng Hai, he is unquestionably not an international coach & it would be a disgrace to speak further about him in my article!

All the other coach candidates mentioned in corresponding comments are just not up to where we need for our team to get back into the highest level (i.e. World Cup & Olympics). They “may” get us there but it would not be consistent.

I’ve played with most of them (Sarjit, Dharma, Vicky, etc....the only one I’ve never worked with was Rajan) and know their level of mentality, man management and professionalism. None of them are close to what we need.

This only points towards one direction - a foreign coach. It truly was an eye-opener for me when Terry Walsh took our national team for 4 yrs (’90-’93) & the 5 months under Lissek before CG ’98. The changes implemented were drastically different. It was simply far from what I had seen in any of the other coaches in my life.

I’d been coached by Sri Shan, Dato’ Yoges, school coaches & my Jr W-Cup coaches, believe me they are all not far from each other. There is no distinct difference in their coaching (technically or strategically).

The only foreign coach we had who I would rank as average is Volker Knapp. Unfortunately, he was the closest friend of mine.

Invest huge MHF and get one of the best coaches available on a long term. PAY. Don’t forget that not every coach is dying to get to our place.

Shankar Ramu said...

Now where do I start... (Part 1) - Please re-print Part 1 of my comment

There are so many comments easily written but sadly most of them do not make sense & truly impracticable.

Let’s just take these 2 quotes from some comments in this article, which practically sums up all others made in this blog:

1. “Malaysian former glory is not going to be achieved again” & “via DVDs & given tasks to analyse the games in their own words”-Anonymous Oct 14
2. “limit for National Players at only 30 yrs old. No more 30s.”-Anonymous Oct15

Everybody talks about “former Malaysian glory”, “our ex-level in world hockey”, “how good we use to be” - Where have you been??

Malaysia has only finished ONCE above an 8th placed finish in the 12 World Cups in the history of hockey. This was the 4th place in a World Cup 35 years ago (that too was due to the unexpected 2-1 win over Holland in the final group stage match).

The best part is almost the same 16 players go to the Montreal Olympics a year later & where do they finish? Yes, 8th! 8th is the best ever finish by Malaysia in any Olympics but everyone spins & fumes when we don’t qualify (i.e. lower than 12th) or even finish a “dismal” 9th (ONE place lower than the best finish).

Please can ANYONE tell me where are these “former Malaysian glory days” which I seem to have missed!

What’s the best have we finished in an Asian Games? Bronze. There you go, as simple as that. We have NEVER finished any higher. Now we are targeting a Gold medal finish for this upcoming Games and it apparently would be a “disaster” if we don’t! Yes, we should set a high target and it certainly is an achievable gold. But don’t place the team’s head (coach, players & mgmt) on the chopping block.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like or dislike Stephen V Huizen - I hate him. Played with him in the national team & he was the asst. coach of the team when I played as well. As an individual, I simply hate him. As a coach, I easily think he’s the best coach we’ve got at the moment. As for Tai Beng Hai, he is unquestionably not an international coach & it would be a disgrace to speak further about him in my article!

All the other coach candidates mentioned in corresponding comments are just not up to where we need for our team to get back into the highest level (i.e. World Cup & Olympics). They “may” get us there but it would not be consistent.

I’ve played with most of them (Sarjit, Dharma, Vicky, etc....the only one I’ve never worked with was Rajan) and know their level of mentality, man management and professionalism. None of them are close to what we need.

This only points towards one direction - a foreign coach. It truly was an eye-opener for me when Terry Walsh took our national team for 4 yrs (’90-’93) & the 5 months under Lissek before CG ’98. The changes implemented were drastically different

It was simply far from what I had seen in any of the other coaches in my life. I’d been coached by Sri Shan, Dato’ Yoges, school coaches & my Jr W-Cup coaches, believe me they are all not far from each other. There is no distinct difference in their coaching (technically or strategically).

The only foreign coach we had who I would rank as average is Volker Knapp. Unfortunately, he was the closest friend of mine.

Invest huge MHF and get one of the best coaches available on a long term. PAY. Don’t forget that not every coach is dying to get to our place.

Anonymous said...

Well done Shanker, now here is someone who knows what he is talking.MHF pleaseeeeee read and think of this post.

Anonymous said...

Shankar Ramu

Agree with your brilliant comments but these are already in the talks for a long time. We lacking in putting things in place.I think you need to reposition yourself. Unfair to hit local coaches. Let me walk you through.....our local coaches harvested the talents and Terry came to take them to the next level. International thinking players. Do we have that now? Then we had a clown coaching, Volker. For some obvious reason you qualified him as a friend. Both of you failed to keep the upward rhythm set by the Aussie.....The 1st slide. Then came the dinosaur coach who is ten years behind. Euro is not in favour of his style of hockey. He couldn't fit in there. You somewhat fitted very well in his set up 'don't think just do it" i.e. resulted the product we have now. That's the phase of Malaysian Hockey now. The point I am making is we have the hockey know how. We are not far off in FIH arena. What is lacking? Do we invest in equipping our coaches in the other areas of managing people etc etc. Look at you, as a player you are really hardworking but lacked in people skills. Working life has tuned you understand people. We need to understand Korea.......TBC

Anonymous said...

Oh God, shankar you are still around? What have you done for hockey? You are where you are partly is your hard work and partly because of hockey. What have you contributed back to hockey ?
Who trained/coached you ? local coaches la bro. We need local coaches. They know best.
Pakailah orang buatan Malaysia

Anonymous said...

Peter "pacs" a renowned name around nineties hockey generation. The name was given to him because of obvious reasons. He is a pain on and off the playing field. Every player was not good enough for him. The juniors are at his mercy constantly .

He is the all rounder and king maker. He is the all rounder and king maker.

This chap Peter who he is fondly called by his team mates has a head too big for his shoulder. I don’t blame his parent as they are very polite and soft spoken people.

Not only did he insult 3 generation of national hockey players by his statement. But his uncle who played in the 1975 team was also included.

It is probably his way of venting his frustration for missing his 3rd Olympic.

As always Peter needs the attention by declaring himself ALOUD.

If anonymous, October 19, 2010 4:51 PM is suggesting that he run for election, Malaysian hockey is kaput.

When he points a finger at someone, 3 fingers is pointing back at him. He mentioned the DP and Hon. Sec was not good enough, he would probably fall into this category also. His “rich history’ as a player will shock you into coma.

What have he done to help Malaysian hockey? Anonymous 10:40 PM you are right. Paul Lissek put him in place when he was coach.

And he finally found his twins, his friend coach, VK. It is obvious both have the same hobby to make them tick.

When he was caught with a woman in his room, the coach said that there is no problem. What if another player is caught with a male visitor in the room and the player is gay? Was it a team rule breach? Ha..ha..

Well it will be a biography if we continue….

Anonymous said...

Vicky,

If you don't like peter don't insult him in public. Only he is capable of this.

Chill bro..

Shankar Ramu said...

Dearest Anonymous writers,
Here you go:

No.1 Anonymous Oct 20 3:43 PM:
Who coached me? Of course I’ve been coached by local coaches, right from my school days to the very top level. Did I EVER state I’ve never utilised them or I’ve lost my appreciation for them?? NO!!

The fact is most of them, sorry none of them, are good enough to be our “national coach”. That is my opinion and I stick by it. Its important we do get one who is highly regarded in the world. Not even an average level foreign coach such as Volker Knapp, Malcolm Wood (my Nat’l League coach in UK, Wales & GB Asst. Coach), etc. Stephen VH is slightly better than them but we need one who is way above average!

Look at someone like Hans Jorritsma of Holland. He coached the winning WC ’90 Holland team & led Pakistan to 2 victories in ’94 - WC & Champs Trophy. Dutch football team utilised him in this year’s World Cup. He would be there in every match on their bench two seats away from their team manager. I’m not saying, “go & pick up Jorritsma”, but attain someone of his calibre, experience & achievements.

What’s my contribution for hockey in M’sia? Honestly & sincerely, its not been much, almost nothing. I’ve not been in the country for almost 7 yrs & my son's born with multiple holes in his heart. My dream is to set up a hockey academy. I may never achieve it but let's see. I’ve attained jobs for ex-players, guided the current national captain when he was raw, guided ex-players on their career paths, helped a state age-group team...well, this comments are not suppose to be about me. So, let’s move on.

No.2 Anonymous Oct 20 9:39 AM:
“Volker & me failed to keep the upward rhythm of the national team”? Why is it “me” when we had the whole squad? We had a full load of assistant coaches and players during those 4 yrs! All the same, we did qualify for the ’96 OG & ’98 WC (after a lapse of 16 yrs). He, & most certainly we were lucky in those 2 big tournaments but my opinion still remains that he isn’t the one to lead our national team.

No.3 Anonymous Oct 19 10:40 PM:
“Volker & I shared girls”?? Well, I would have loved it if this was true! He certainly did have a handful of them. The bottom line is, you’ve got to face it... MOST sportsmen do have their fun during their playing career days; e.g. Tiger Woods, Rooney, etc; all the same it ain’t right and time makes you grow up to look at things differently.

All this of “Volker & me” is because I stated clearly in MY article that he was a good friend of mine. All of you jump and speak as if you made a Sherlock Holmes discovery! PLEASE grow up. Don’t forget the fact that I stated clearly is that he was only an average coach; i.e. not good enough to coach our national team.

No.4 Anonymous Oct 20 10:06 PM @ LimBo:
You are just like all the other “Anonymous” writers who have no guts to place your name. I suppose that’s something which can’t be changed in you at this old age of yours. Oh, I could be wrong since these days, after all your religion preaching days, you certainly do have a good “bang” when you are in Bangkok, don’t you?

I wasn’t by anyway degrading the ’75 team, I was only trying to enlighten every hockey lover in M’sia that we only did well in ONE tourney. Yes, that would always remain as one of our best squads, if not the best. But, we never ever had a prime PERIOD to say we had some glory days.

Gandhi, maybe you shouldn’t allow any “Anonymous” writers any more. They just “seem” to have so much of guts when their faces are covered. I guess then it wouldn’t be interesting as they would all unanimously disappear simultaneously.

Everyone, all I wanna say is...

These 2 articles of mine easily only had 2 targets:
1. We need a GOOD foreign coach as I can’t see anyone locally who is complete
2. From the outside, it is clear that MHF’s admin. position needs some thinking

The bottom line is there would be many ways to look at anything.

“Every case can be seen from no less than seven points of view” – Mahatma Gandhi

Shankar Ramu said...

Wow, within 7 minutes of one "Anonymous" post there is another "Anonymous" which could exactly tell who came up with the one just before.


No.1 Anonymous said,
XXXXXXXXXX
on October 20, 2010 10:06 PM

AND then within SEVEN MINUTES later, apparently "someone else" comes up with this:

No.2 Anonymous said......
Vicky,......Chill bro..
on October 20, 2010 10:13 PM


You don't have the guts to say who you are & on top of that you think everyone else are fools to believe your show of placing names!

Wake up LimBo.....I guess its a bit too late for that.

Anonymous said...

You are right R.Shankar..
Come on guys..Think out of the box please..And off course put aside all your personal interest..You all already make good money so far :-) .. Its a fact that all our local coaches not up to standard and expectation..We really need a good foreign coach to guide the team and get back to the right path..

Anonymous said...

A lot have been said about coaches here. i think, i mean my opinion and based on track recort until niw, Sarjit is still the best. He has brought the best out of Junior players who makes the core of the national team.Anyone can say anything, but on the field and giving results, he has delivered.Lets judge a person on his ability, not for anyones personal reason, He is the best bet to guide the National team. Sarjit Boleh.

Anonymous said...

Agree. Sarjit still the best local coach in Malaysia currently if based on merits, not sentiments...............

Anonymous said...

(discount 4th position 35 years ago , our best year) but correct me if im wrong....we had local coaches and the best position was 8th......when we had foreign coach we were still 8th....werent we?


Fan frm a distance!

Anonymous said...

Fan from distance, you have nailed it correctly. Its review time now. How to get to next level. We need to study the development of hockey in Australia, Holland & Germany. What are they teaching/coaching at that level? Something lacking over here. eg: do our guys know about diet or what smoking does to our fitness level etc. All they know is smoking is not good for high performance and not beyond. What is important is literature and science behind that;i.e. go around the situation by educating. This is only one of the example and I'm not even getting to technical abilities. The problem is educating them. Local coaches need to deal with this sort of generation.....even simple english is a problem.

Btw, SS is a good player/captain. Coaching is something else. He is a strong character and will fit in well as a administrator but need someone running around for him.

Anonymous said...

Read in the papers Faizal Shaari needs to control his temper.After doing it again and again he says sorry.Why MHF never take action?Players drunk, no action on some and stern action on some? Why bias,is it because they are core players?What example are you trying to set? Be consistent on ur action, so all is fair.If you cant, step down! We need dedicated players not undisipline players>

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