Hockey: Black Sticks vets salute Bay businesses

HANGING TOUGH: Shea McAleese (3rd from right, back row) with his Braxgata hockey club teammates in Antwerp, about 25 minutes' drive from Brussels. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Hockey international Shea McAleese is indebted to a group of Hawke's Bay businessmen for helping him realise the final chapters of a memorable career.

Echoing the sentiments of Black Sticks women's most-capped defender, Emily Gaddum (nee Naylor), McAleese thanked the Hawke's Bay Sports, Events and Educational Consortium Inc (HB SEEC) for its fiscal fillip in helping them in their final quest for the Rio Olympics in winter, provided the pair make the cut of their respective coaches in the lead up to the premier sporting stage in the northern summer.

"As New Zealand players we're not earning big sums of money so we need all the support we can get to play professionally," he says, mindful when he returns to Auckland to prepare with the camp for Rio pursuing a fulltime job isn't an option as it would detract from valuable time needed to train, watch videos and partake in recovery sessions.

"We have to be more elite sportsmen if we want to win in Rio so thanks to them [HB SEEC] again," he says of the Bay businesses who also help with the operations of the annual Festival of Hockey starting on Saturday.

Like Gaddum, the 31-year-old from Napier is in the twilight of his career following 122 international caps and representing his country in the two previous Olympic Games.

Asked if he wanted to say anything else, McAleese replied: "Oh, just wish the women good luck in the [Hawke's Bay Cup]."

Bay festival event director David Nancarrow has juxtaposed the three-year-old, eight-nation women's cup to the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, as the female answer to the world's largest invitational hockey tournament.

In 2014 the Bay invited six teams. Last year, that shot up to eight and remains at that threshold again this year.

Six return this week, including the Black Sticks, champions Australia, China, South Korea, Japan and India while Canada and Ireland debut after Argentina and the United States withdrew.

The returning six have qualified for Rio.

The schoolgirls' Furnware Cup has eight teams, including four from the Bay alongside other North Island schools.

The affiliates tourney, to be staged at the Park Island turfs in Napier, has enticed eight men and women's teams each, including four from Australia.

Teams start arriving in Napier from today.