Review slams Hockey NZ
Hockey New Zealand has been lashed for failing its players, leading to ‘‘unacceptable outcomes’’ for the Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning women’s Black Sticks.
The long awaited review by Maria Dew QC landed yesterday, three months later than originally scheduled.
A review into the environment inside the team was launched in September after it emerged coach Mark Hager mistakenly sent an email bagging players to the entire team.
The email was sent during the team’s Hockey World Cup campaign and was meant for team management only.
Hager was reportedly set to be sacked as Black Sticks coach, but he pre-empted that by resigning last month to become head coach of the Great Britain and England women’s teams.
His departure failed to spare HNZ, which has been told to develop an ‘‘action plan’’ to protect players and management.
HNZ systems ‘‘had failed to enable player issues to be responded to at the time’’, Dew said.
Dew interviewed 33 players – about half the number who played for New Zealand from 2016-2018 – and 70 per cent of those reported serious concerns about the environment.
Of those with concerns 18 were described as ‘‘well capped’’, experienced test players.
Dew found a ‘‘very clear’’ disconnect between how the players saw their environment was not helping them reach their full potential, and HNZ and High Performance Sport New Zealand staff, who had the almost unanimous view the environment was ‘‘largely positive’’.
Staff had either not seen behaviours described by the majority of players interviewed, or ‘‘considered the behaviours were largely reasonable and necessary in an elite sporting environment’’, Dew found.
While HNZ had committed coaching staff, there was a ‘‘lack of acceptance’’ of player concerns, she found.
‘‘HNZ has not committed sufficient resource, or given adequate consideration, to the human resource and sports duty of care aspects of . . . player welfare.’’
Some players had been raising concerns, particularly since the 2016 Rio Olympics, but HNZ felt the concerns could not be acted on, unless there was a formal complaint.
HNZ chair Mike Bignell made a face-to-face apology to the players yesterday morning, prior to the review’s release.
‘‘The failings resulted in unacceptable outcomes for some of our players and consequently the broader management Bignell said.
‘‘It should never have got to this point and Hockey New Zealand unequivocally apologises to all those who have had a poor experience in the environment.
‘‘We’re sorry we did not have the right support in place to ensure legitimate concerns were investigated. We welcome the opportunity to meet confidentially with anyone who believes that their concerns are not being addressed.’’
As part of continuous improvement, HNZ accepted the review’s recommendations and was working on a range of initiatives to strengthen their high performance environment.
‘‘While our systems clearly need strengthening, so do our relationships,’’ Bignell said.
‘‘Hockey New Zealand must engage better with our players and our representatives, the team,’’ Hockey Players Association, as well as providing resources and support to ensure athlete wellbeing.
‘‘This is a hard-working group of women, many of whom balance fulltime employment or study with the demands of training to perform at the highest level against teams that are fully professional. There’s no doubt these women are tough.’’
HNZ people and culture committee chair Shane Collins said the aim was to put people at the centre of their sport, and it was vital all parties were involved.
‘‘As recommended by the reviewer, we are taking time to reflect properly on the review and develop a plan that will ensure the players’ voices are heard.’’
He said the action plan would take weeks to complete, but they had already identified immediate actions to carry out.
Radio New Zealand reported last month that after chief executive Ian Francis saw the initial report the players and Hager were said to have been told that his position was untenable.
Bignell said the aim of HNZ was to win medals at the 2020 Olympic Games.
‘‘Our commitment as a board is to ensure we give the players, coaches and management the best possible environment to win on the world stage.’’
‘‘It should never have got to this point and Hockey New Zealand unequivocally apologises to all those who have had a poor experience in the environment.’’
HNZ chair Mike Bignell, left.
Among the recommendations were:
❚ Establishing a role which will have oversight of the welfare of the Black Sticks women, and be an extra communications channel
❚ Start the process to recruit a permanent head coach
❚ The appointment of an HR professional to advise the board, and sit on the people and culture committee
❚ Develop a workplace code of conduct
❚ Schedule opportunities for players to educate themselves on HR policies, among them health and safety, wellbeing, discrimination, bullying and harassment