Hockey: Tournament win secures payout for hockey men

On-field success has ensured the money keeps rolling in for Hockey New Zealand.

Winning the men's World Cup qualifying tournament in Invercargill on Sunday met Sparc's performance criteria and ensured the promised $700,000 grant and $150,000 in service credits from the funding agency are guaranteed.

Individual performance enhancement grants - around $15,000 for each of the 25 players in the national squad - also remain in place until next year's World Cup, when they will be reviewed.

Should the team achieve their goal of a top four finish those grants will continue.

"In our discussions with Sparc this week it was apparent they have seen the changes we have made on and off the field and are very pleased with the progress we have made under our high-performance programme," said HNZ chief executive Hilary Poole. "For a sport like ours to have two teams at a World Cup [in 2010] is fantastic."

Sparc have already announced support of $650,000 and $107,000 in service credits for the national women's team.

"We need about $1 million a year for each Black Sticks team," said Poole. "We now have funding through to the end of 2010 in place with ongoing Sparc support and confirmation of the continuation of New Zealand Community Trust support."

On the field there are also changes.

Rather than take an assistant coach - Australian Sean Dancer filled that role at the World Cup qualifier - to next month's Champions Challenge tournament in Argentina, Black Sticks men's coach Shane McLeod has opted for a strength and conditioning coach and a sports physiologist.

"I thought we played well throughout the week but there were areas of concern in the later games," said McLeod. "We went a bit individual in the final.

"On looking back on recent tournaments, we now realise that in game three or four we have often been poor, especially in playing against teams we should do better against. We are now going to use sports physiologist Paul Laursen and strength and conditioning coach Matt Kritz - from the New Zealand Academy of Sport - to work on a number of things.

"There are other aspects we are keen to look at including the different stresses travel, heat and altitude bring and how we can best deal with them. Workload is often a factor, given we usually play six games in a little over a week under tournament conditions.

"Often we play well in game one and two, then notice a decline in performance before reaching a plateau. We need to peak towards the end of tournaments and hold a peak for longer."

There have been changes in the make-up of the New Zealand team for the Champions Challenge, with Hayden and Brad Shaw unavailable.