Oz hockey coach Stacy calls Ind-Aus contest ‘real arm wrestle’ ahead of Jr WC

Australian coach Jay Stacy is patiently waiting for the second edition of the revamped Hockey India League (HIL) to begin where he will be coaching the Vedanta Kalinga Lancers.However, he has a bigger task ahead of him before that as the coach of the Australian junior team that will compete in the World Cup to be held in Chennai and Madurai starting later this month.

Most of the players from that team took part in the recent Sultan of Johor Cup where they beat India in the final and Stacy is hoping his players will be able to carry the momentum into the World Cup.“We had the qualifier in January, had an European tour in June, and then we had the Johor cup where we were successful in Oct and it has given the team a lot of belief and confidence that we're doing a lot of things right and we would like to bring that confidence to the Junior World cup,” said Stacy during a virtual interaction with TOI.While the Australian youngsters got the better of their Indian counterparts in Malaysia, Stacy spoke highly of the Indian team, who beat them twice during a four-nation tournament in Europe.“They’re a very good team. We had some good matches in Europe in June. India beat us 3-1 and then 2-1 and then in Johor we beat India a couple of times,” added Stacy. “However, the matches were always very close, a real arm wrestle. A lot of talented players on both the teams and in the end, it comes down to which team takes their opportunities at the right time.”

While doing well in the World Cup will certainly be on top of his checklist, what he is also happy about is how some of the players from the junior programme have made it to the senior team following the team’s below-par performance at the Olympics last year.“Many new players have come through the under 21 system who are now playing for the Kookaburras. They’re working very hard together to perform well not only at the World cup next year but also heading towards LA Olympics,” added the former Australian player, who won three Olympic medals in 1992, 1996 and 2000.Meanwhile, the coach is hoping to make a difference for Lancers, too. It’s not the first time that he will be coaching in HIL having earlier mentored Dabang Mumbai in 2016 and 2017.“I’m really looking forward to providing an environment where the players can play their best hockey,” said the Aussie coach. “It’s always a challenge when you’ve got players coming from different parts of the world and their normal playing style is little bit different. So, it’s a nice challenge to try and mould a team to be all on the same page and to play in a way that’s going to create enough opportunities to win matches.

”Hopefully, he will be able to achieve his goal because in the last edition, Lancers, despite having a great team on paper, failed o make it to the knockouts and are hungry for success.