The men who stuck to their task
One moment summed up the euphoria in the New Zealand camp in the aftermath of the 1976 Montreal Olympics men’s hockey final.
Elated to edge Australia 1-0 and secure a gold medal few predicted they were capable of, three Kiwi players tossed their sticks into the almost 20,000-strong crowd at Molson Stadium. Striker Ramesh Patel regrets the decision to this day, but it was entirely understandable given the team’s path to glory.
Few gave the New Zealand side hope of medalling, let alone gold, as they departed for Canada.
They had finished ninth, seventh and equal-13th at the three previous Games and their lead-in form, punctuated by a seventh at the 1975 World Cup, meant some even believed other Kiwi athletes were more deserving of attending.
Within the team, though, an air of quiet confidence had been building. The players believed they were capable of something memorable. Largely a blend of an experienced Canterbury side and the young Auckland team beginning to challenge their dominance, nine of the 16-man New Zealand squad had been at the 1968 Olympics.
That group’s ninth-place finish became a driving force for the next Games cycle.
‘‘We were absolutely disappointed,’’ striker Barry Maister said recalling the golden success in 2012. ‘‘I remember we sat around after that performance and said ‘hey, we are better that that.’’
One result of that attitude was a significant lift in fitness levels.
Former Kiwi international and 1964 Olympian Brian Maunsell came on board as team trainer, resulting in what Maister, who played international hockey for a decade, called the ‘‘fittest New Zealand team I had been part of’’.
New Zealand went into the trans-Tasman final as underdogs, but that was not an indicator of what followed.
‘‘The Aussies were very cocky before the game,’’ captain Tony Ineson told NZPA in 1997.
‘‘But the way the match went they had no reason to be.
We went to halftime 0-0 but felt if we kept the pressure on a goal must come.’’
After Patel had missed an early penalty stroke, that goal did come seven minutes into the second half.
And it was Ineson himself who belted in from a penalty corner, with a sequence he, Maister and John Christensen had practiced hundreds of times in their lunchbreaks at Christchurch’s Hagley Park.
The goal changed the nature of the contest, Australia instantly pressing forward and the New Zealand defence doing their utmost to maintain the lead.
With 11 minutes to play, the ferocity of the Australian attack was underlined when Kiwi goalkeeper Trevor Manning had his kneecap shattered saving a penalty corner strike.
The blow saw him return home in a cast and wheelchair and eventually have his kneecap wired together, but he played on, immediately stopped another penalty corner blast and made several more saves as New Zealand held on.