‘Cowardice’: Hockey NZ slammed by Glenn

Sir Owen Glenn has accused Hockey New Zealand of cowardice, raising serious doubts 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’’.

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, following the resignation of coach Mark Hager in January 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 told Newstalk ZB.

Speaking at the release of the review, before Glenn commented publicly, Bignell was optimistic Glenn’s concerns could be addressed.

‘‘Sir Owen Glenn has been a great supporter of hockey for a long time and we need to keep talking to and working with him. 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.’’