This weekend both Aotearoa Black Sticks teams will play their Australia counterparts in two FIH Pro League games over in Perth. While being official Pro League games, these games won't actually mean a whole lot for the Pro League as Netherlands women and Belgium men have already been graced with championship honours.

Of course this Pro League campaign was heavily ruptured by 2020 antics and each Pro League team played a different amount of games meaning that win-percentage was the most important factor. Netherlands women finished with a win-percentage of 88.89, while kiwi Shane McLeod coached Belgium win 76.19 percent of their games. Belgium men grabbed two wins over Aotearoa back in early 2020 to start this Pro League (2-6 and 1-3) , while the kiwi women couldn't get a game against the Dutch as two-game series against Netherlands, Germany and China were rubbed out last year for the women; the lads didn't play their series vs Netherlands, Germany and India.

Black Sticks Men are currently 7th of 9 teams (33.33%) and could sneak ahead of Great Britain (41.67%) if the math works out - the men have to win both games vs Australia. Black Sticks Women are currently 3rd (58.33%) and the women have been far more effective in the Pro League as they finished the prior campaign in 6th while the lads finished 9th. Both teams have improved in that Pro League context which is nice, although I wouldn't go as far as saying both teams are better right now as they have both lost a bunch of top-tier players and also struggled against Australia in their recent series on Aotearoa soil.

Four Tests were played in Palmerston North a few weeks back and neither looked overly flash for the kiwis...

Men: 1-3, 0-3, 2-4, 1-5.

Women: 1-1, 2-2, 2-2, 1-3.

That's 4 goals scored and 15 goals against for the men, while the women finished with 6 goals scored and 8 goals against. Of the last 37 games played between the trans-Tasman men's rivals, Australia have won 32 games. Graham Shaw's arrival as Black Sticks Women's coach has helped take the women to a recent record of five draws, three losses and two wins in their last 10 games against Australia (19 losses, 11 wins and 12 draws in last 42 games).

While these are official Pro League games, they are games that are nicely positioned ahead of the Olympics and that serves as the main focus for both nations. There is not a whole lot to suggest that Aotearoa will be major factors in the Olympics and that's just keeping it a full steak and cheese. There's ho-hum Pro League campaigns to back that up, as well as both teams combining to not get a win in their eight games vs Australia recently.

If there is a slither of hope, it's that all these games against Australia could end up being beneficial as Australia and Aotearoa are in the same Olympic pools on both the men’s and women's side of the draw. The women will have the Aussies and Argentina as their main rivals in Pool B while Spain, China and Japan will be games they need to win to advance. The Men have Australia and India in Pool A with both of them ranked ahead of the kiwis in the Pro League, while the Black Sticks finished ahead of Argentina and Span but those two hockey teams are world-class when in the right mood - Japan rounds out the men's Pool A.

This has been a weird year and a bit for Black Sticks hockey. The women's team has been pretty damn good in the Pro League and yet they've had plenty of distractions from kiwi media, while the team that hasn't been very good has flown under the radar. Ponder the dramas that women's coach Graham Shaw has had to deal with and compare that to men's coach Darren Smith who has coached 22 Pro League games with 2 wins and a shoot-out win.

Both teams have been through weird shenanigans or a changing of the guard with experienced players (world-class players) moving on from international hockey to pursue professional opportunities. The women are far more likely to grab an Olympic medal, while the men will be hoping some of the kiwi vibes provided by the Blackcaps can make up for a lack of pure international talent. These Pro League games in Australia aren't crucial, yet they will provide an insightful stepping stone leading into the Olympics.

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Peace and love.