Solid Start, Meh Finish for Black Sticks Women in Tokyo
Aotearoa's Black Sticks Women went down 0-3 to Netherlands in their Olympic quarter-final last night, finishing their campaign with four consecutive defeats. The three goal margin was the largest of the Black Sticks tournament and came after the kiwis lost by just one goal in their three losses prior to the knockout stages. Such tight losses in an Olympic tournament can be viewed as hopeful signs of being close to getting over the hump, while also being extremely frustrating given that the kiwis lost to China who didn't qualify for the knockout phase.
The tournament started so well with the hearty 3-0 win over Argentina and then a 2-1 win over Japan who were the other team not to progress. Stingey defence, snapping up opportunities and holding things down without Stacey Michelsen and Sam Charlton were highlights from that win over Argentina. Tomorrow, Argentina play the semi-final against India and are highly likely to crack the Olympic final so the latinas probably aren't too fussed about losing to Aotearoa.
Losing their last three games of pool play saw the kiwis qualify fourth and that set up the tough task of facing Netherlands in a quarter-final. The Dutch won all five of their pool games with 18 goals scored and just 2 goals conceded, which was a horrible match up for Aotearoa and this is where those one-goal losses are influential.
Aotearoa converted 0/4 Penalty Corners against Netherlands and that's always going to make things tricky against the world's best. Aotearoa had just 31 percent possession and 3 circle penetrations (Dutch had 28) in the quarter-final, which is precisely not what you want in a knockout game. Constant turnovers and letting Netherlands control the tempo were all part of this loss, which made for frustrating viewing and in summary this was basically the same recipe on repeat in the three pool play loss; Netherlands were much better than Aotearoa's pool play opponents though.
There are far more positive vibes in the Black Sticks Women compared to the lads - not quite as positive as commentator Lesley Murdoch made it seem though. With a talented crop of youngsters such as Katie Doar, Olivia Shannon, Hope Ralph and Holly Pearson there does seem to be some kinda of path forward for the wahine. Grace O'Hanlan is a quality goalie as well and thankfully this young crop have some combination of class, x-factor, speed and goal-poaching to keep things fun.
The rough takeaway from this Olympic campaign was the experienced core struggling to keep up with their opponents. Stacey Michelsen has long been the lone x-factor for Aotearoa, although this tournament saw Michelsen battle some kind of injury and opposition teams are well aware of Michelsen's dribbling prowess so they simply load up numbers around her. Rose Keddell was tasked with much of the midfield play-making and that came with plenty of turnovers, Olivia Merry was quiet throughout the tournament and the solid defensive unit didn't do that solid defensive thing.
The way Doar stood out in the midfield and the energy of Shannon, Ralph and Pearson stood out up front is fantastic. That shouldn't be the case though in an Olympic tournament and while this provides a far more hopeful outlook than the men moving forward, it's also the reason why this team struggled in Tokyo.
Black Sticks Men have hit a plateau over the past five years, while there is a curious yarn to be told checking in with the women's results in major tournaments…
2016 Rio Olympics: 4th.
2018 Commonwealth Games: 1st.
2018 World Cup: 11th.
2019 Pro League: 6th (of 9).
2020 Pro League: 6th (of 9).
Aotearoa finished ahead of Australia and England in the Commonwealth Games, then Australia finished 4th and England finished 6th at the World Cup later in 2018. Those results suggest a changing of the guard, although a large crop of players from the 2018 World Cup played in the quarter-final against Netherlands; Sam Charlton, Frances Davies, Ella Gunson, Rose Keddell, Olivia Merry, Stacey Michelsen, Grace O'Hanlan, Kelsey Smith, Liz Thompson. Most of those players won the Commonwealth Games gold medal and it's weird how they haven't quite kicked on from that Rio Olympics - Commonwealth Games phase.
Which brings us to the weird old situation with Black Sticks coaches. Regardless of how you feel about Mark Hager, he oversaw lovely period of Black Sticks Women success and since being replaced by Graham Shaw that hasn't continued - Hager was the 2018 World Cup coach as well though. Shaw has brought in young players, while various young players from the end of the Hager era fell away from the group which makes it hard to point to any kind of squad overhaul under coach Shaw. Plus, the experienced core that makes up the majority of the team has stayed the same under both coaches.
I can't say that the Black Sticks Women have got worse under Shaw, nor can I say they have got better. This is a team that has the potential to kick it with the world's elite, although as this Olympic campaign showed they don't quite hit their potential enough to compete in the upper echelon. There is far more intrigue in what Shaw will do with this team moving forward compared to the blokes, the days of sniffing around major tournament medal contention don't quite feel as strong as they once did though.
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