Stacey Michelsen in action at the last Olympics in London. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Stacey Michelsen in action at the last Olympics in London. Photo / Brett Phibbs
It is not a topic you have to dance around with Stacey Michelsen. She's quite happy to confront the fact the Black Sticks women are starting to generate an unenviable record of falling short of the podium in big tournaments.
The 24-year-old is gaining a reputation as one of theworld's best players and coach Mark Hager likened her to recently retired Argentine superstar Luciana Aymar, but the Auckland-based Northlander knows that to cement her place among the true greats, she's going to have to be on a team that wins medals.
Micheslen says she is honoured to be even "remotely" compared to Aymar, but as yet lacks her ability to change the course of a game through skill and sheer force of personality. She also lacks Aymar's consistency.
"That is something I need to work on," Michelsen says.
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You could say the same for the whole team. A typical tournament of late means flying through pool play, losing a semifinal heartbreaker then playing like zombies in the third-fourth or bronze playoff match.
"It frustrates the hell out of us. I'm not sure what it is, whether it's mental or whether on the day we're just nor fronting up and playing good enough hockey. It's something that will be a huge focus heading into Rio. We consistently don't win our final games at tournaments.
"Coming fourth is a horrible feeling."
Even more cruelly, the team, and Michelsen along with them, is becoming known for blowing penalty shootouts.
"I think scarred is a good word," she says. "I missed at Comm Games, I missed at Champions Trophy and I missed at the World League III. That's three in a row now so yeah, I've lost some confidence."
The team will be seeking psychological help to overcome that barrier, with Michelsen saying she viewed it as no different to using a strength-and-conditioning coach in an effort to be the best.
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It seems unjust in many ways to frame the Michelsen story with such a negative proposition because there is very little the defender, who is "transitioning into a midfield role", has done wrong in a stellar start to her career.
But the fact is, she wants to be the very best. It's what she's been working for, it seems, her whole life.
Michelsen grew up on a lifestyle block just north of Whangarei into a hockey-mad family.
Mum, Barbara, played, as did two elder sisters Marcie and Carli, who was a junior Black Stick herself.
Michelsen's competitiveness shone through immediately and she was part of a Northland under-13 team that won back-to-back Collier Trophies, beating the more established hockey powers of Canterbury and Auckland.
In fact, that era of Northland hockey has thrown out some unbelievable talent per capita, most of whom passed through the gates of Kamo Intermediate.
Before Michelsen there was Suzie Muirhead and Lizzie Igasan, both national captains, and since then the Harrison sisters Charlotte and Samantha, Anna Thorpe, Alana Millington, Laura Douglas, Jan Rowsell, Ella Gunson and Jasmin McQuinn.
"We had amazing facilities and awesome, dedicated coaches - Angeline Waetford and Grant McLeod - who drove the programme.
This group didn't just win trophies for Northland age-group teams, they drove each other towards their stated ambition of becoming Black Sticks. There was no false modesty; they had seen what the rest of the country could offer and knew they were capable.
New Zealand's coach Mark Harger comforts Stacey Michelsen on the turf at Glasgow National Hockey Centre after losing their semi-final match against England. Photo / Greg Bowker
"As soon as I reached high school it was something I was very, very serious about. By high school I knew that if I worked hard I had the ability to make it," Michelsen says.
And work hard they did. Spare time was spent at the turf. Teacher-only days were spent at the turf.
Michelsen left her friends and family for the final two years of high school, which was spent on a hockey scholarship at St Cuthbert's in Auckland, where she came under the tutelage of legendary Black Stick Tina Bell-Kake, still regarded by many as New Zealand's greatest player.
By 2009 she was in the national team and has been a fixture since.
Stacey Michelsen is now regarded as one of the best players in the world. She will end up with a double-degree in law and commerce and eventually sees herself living on a lifestyle block near Whangarei, working with the next generation of Northland hockey stars.
But to be truly satisfied, there's one thing she needs.
"I would have an Olympic medal in a nice cabinet in my house."
