Finding new faces under new coach secret of Australia's resurgence after Rio debacle

CHENNAI: The poor performance of Australia's men and women's hockey teams at the Rio Olympics brought with it some rancour about how the country funds its Olympic sports. Hockey, which was in the eye of a storm, receives a funding of close to $6mn from Winning Edge, a government programme that hands money to some of the most successful sporting programmes run by various federations.

The Rio disaster meant there were calls to cut back funding for hockey, a step that Hockey Australia (HA) naturally did not agree with. Their point was funding could not be stopped because of one bad tournament. That was a valid argument. They were back-to-back World Cup champions, reigning Champions Trophy champions and World League Final winners in 2015.

Hockey received that much money from the government because of those successes and they said the team had earned sufficient amount of goodwill because of its trophy-laden past. HA won the debate and the funding stood, but there were still apprehensions about life in the post-Jamie Dwyer era, who retired after the Games.

They needn't have worried. In the Kookaburras' biggest event since then, they were winners again, at the World League Final in Bhubaneswar last week.

Even though coach Colin Batch, who replaced Graham Reid at the end of last year, did not necessarily agree with that, he did say the win was much needed. "It's a massive mental boost ahead of next year where we have some really big tournaments (Commonwealth Games and World Cup) lined up," he said.

While the letdown at Rio was blown out of proportion by the hockey community in part thanks to their history — it was their first medal-less Olympics since 1988 — HA listened to those dissenting voices. Lots of players were shown the door, youngsters were accelerated into the system and the next Olympic cycle began with a sort of purge.

At Bhubaneswar, there were 11 players who did not feature in Rio. Batch, who was instrumental in ringing in those changes, attributed the win to those proactive decisions. "We have made a lot of changes over the last 12 months and brought in new blood into the system and I am happy that it is working. More than anything, this win is important because it puts some belief into the team. This is definitely a step in the right direction."

The obvious next question – what makes them such a fiercely competitive outfit whose young players do not suffer from stage fright – is answered by skipper Mark Knowles in the most deadpan of ways. "It's simple. We have another set of young players chomping at the bit to enter the team. We also have fairly established players waiting for a second chance."

With the nation looking down at the other teams again – literally because they are now the new World No 1 – what does Batch, Knowles & Co seek in 2018? It's a two-word answer beginning with W and ending with P.

swaroop@newindianexpress.com