‘Cowardice’: Glenn slams Hockey NZ
Sir Owen Glenn has accused Hockey New Zealand of cowardice, raising serious doubts as to whether he will resume his financial support of the Black Sticks women’s programme.
An investigation into the Black Sticks environment by lawyer Maria Dew found that 24 of the 33 players she had interviewed had serious concerns about what she labelled ‘‘a negative environment,’’ but the summary that was released publicly yesterday contained no specific examples.
Glenn told Newstalk ZB he had seen a redacted version of Dew’s review but said ‘‘it has huge gaps in it. Everything that could have been contentious has been deleted. And it looks like a lawyer has gone over it with a fine tooth comb’’.
‘‘Where’s the justice in that? Where’s the fair play in that? Someone has to question this. Nobody wants to take responsibility. I want the hockey board to be taken to task.’’
It emerged last week that Glenn had frozen $2 million of funding he had pledged to the team for 2019 and 2020, after the resignation of coach Mark
Hager last month after more than a decade in the role. Hager has since accepted a position as coach of the Great Britain women’s team.
Hager was praised by cocaptains Stacey Michelsen and Sam Charlton at the time of his resignation, and Glenn was also fulsome in his support.
‘‘He is a good coach – I saw a lot of his coaching all over the world. No complaints, all the good players are supporting him. Who are the ones who aren’t? This is cowardice, absolute cowardice,’’ Glenn said.
Hager wasn’t mentioned in the summary of Dew’s findings, nor in any of the statements made by Hockey NZ officials present at the release – chairman Mike Bignell, fellow board member Shane Collins, and chief executive Ian Francis – despite having coached the team and overseen its environment since December 2008.
Speaking at the release of the review, before Glenn commented publicly, Bignell was optimistic Glenn’s concerns could be addressed.
‘‘We’re confident that we can help work through any concerns that he continues to have and we’re looking forward to being able to ensure that [the funding] is in place.’’
But Glenn is clearly unhappy about Hager’s departure, saying: ‘‘Mark, in my opinion, was constructively dismissed by it being made known to him that there were criticisms. And all these so-called players that have criticised, and nobody has been named – they have all been promised anonymity.’’
Glenn said that if Hager was good enough to guide the Black Sticks to a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games last year, Hockey NZ had a responsibility to stick with the coach. It also ranked with Glenn that Hager has to move to England for a new job, forcing him to be away from his family.
‘‘And nobody in this country cares? Well I care. I went to his farewell party and 34 of the 35 girls who were either in the squad, or in the development squad, attended. All backed him . . . gave him a present, shed a tear.’’