Review light on details
Hockey New Zealand has kept details of a damning review into the Black Sticks women’s team environment under former coach Mark Hager close to its chest, frustrating the chairman of the players’ association.
Lawyer Maria Dew found 24 of the 33 current and past players she interviewed had serious concerns about what she called a ‘‘negative environment,’’ a group that includes ‘‘18 players who are well capped’’.
She also found Hockey NZ had not done enough to respond to concerns when previously raised and to ensure player welfare was adequately considered. Details of specific issues and examples of players’ concerns were not made public.
Players’ association chairman Heath Mills said that while he and the players had seen a redacted version of Dew’s report, they would have preferred to see her full findings.
‘‘We strongly believe the only way the group will heal and move forward together is if they start at ground zero with what Maria, the independent reviewer, has discovered, found out, and written.’’
At the same time, Mills said he respected and understood the factors Hockey NZ had to take into account, which included legal advice, and was eager for both parties to move forward.
‘‘The team is training now, it’s got games coming up, the programme keeps moving on, and we need to do all that we can to build a stronger relationship with them and get this programme stronger than it has been.’’
Hockey NZ chairman Mike Bignell apologised to the playing group yesterday and said the organisation was ‘‘deeply sorry’’ that the situation had got to this point.
The information released by his organisation was sparse compared to that released by NZ Football and High Performance Sport NZ when they conducted reviews Hockey NZ chairman Mike Bignell, left.
focused on player welfare last year – the latter with regard to Cycling NZ – and Bignell hid behind a desire to protect confidentiality when asked why.
‘‘I can’t speak for those other views. The important thing for us in this review, as was stated from the very first moment, was around having a confidential process for all those participants. We today do not know who has gone forward and spoken as part of that process and we need to make sure that stays in place.’’
Hager resigned as the Black Sticks coach in mid-January to take up the same role with Great Britain and England’s women’s teams, at a time when he had seen a draft copy of Dew’s review.
The review was instigated at the urging of the players’ association last September, after concerns about it how it was operating under Hager emerged in the media.
Those reports followed the revelation that Hager had sent an email critical of some players to the whole team, rather than a fellow member of management, during their World Cup campaign in July, which ended in a disappointing 11th-place finish.
Seven former players issued a statement at the time rejecting the notion that there was a ‘‘negative environment’’ under Hager. One of those players, Katie Glynn, is currently an assistant coach of the team, something Hockey NZ chief executive Ian Francis didn’t see to be an issue.
At the time of Hager’s departure, Francis was fulsome in his praise of the results the team had achieved under him, while board member Shane Collins said Hockey NZ was ‘‘extremely disappointed to lose one of the world’s top coaches’’ and that ‘‘Mark and his coaching staff have continued to have the support of the board and management’’.
Yesterday, Francis said he stood by his comments about the team’s results, while Collins avoided the question of whether she stood by her comments.
‘‘This review was around the Black Sticks environment,’’ she said. ‘‘It would not be appropriate
for us to comment on anything in relation to an individual.’’
Collins’ response was echoed by Bignell, who preferred to focus on the systemic failings Dew had identified.
‘‘The important issue here is this wasn’t an employment investigation – this was a review of the programme. What’s clear out of that is, yes, there were some serious concerns, and the real failing for us is that when people had concerns, there was a lack of trust in the system for them to be able to raise them in real time and when you can’t raise those in real time, things cascade and this is why we’re here today.’’
Bignell said the Hockey NZ board backed its staff, including Francis, to learn the lessons they needed to from the review.
Former assistant Sean Dancer has been coaching Black Sticks women since Hager’s departure, with a permanent replacement expected to be appointed next month.
Mills said the players’ association didn’t see any need for any immediate changes to be made to the team’s management, with their next match on March 8 as part of the Pro League.
‘‘We’re comfortable at the moment, but we want to work with Hockey NZ to ensure that always remains the case.’’ ‘COWARDICE’
‘‘The real failing for us is that when people had concerns, there was a lack of trust in the system for them to be able to raise them in real time.’’