Findlay bolts into Black Sticks Olympics squad

Two Hawke’s Bay hockey players at various ends of their careers headline the Black Sticks men’s squad for the Tokyo Olympics.

Newcomer Sean Findlay, who has played four tests, and mentor Shea Mcaleese, who has represented New Zealand 314 times, were both unveiled in the 16-player squad named yesterday.

The Black Sticks women’s squad features three outstanding young players Olivia Shannon, Katie Doar, and Hope Ralph alongside the experienced duo of captain Stacey Michelsen and vice-captain

Samantha Charlton, who are both heading to their third Olympics.

Findlay, New Zealand’s current under-21 player of the year, has been long touted as a future Black Stick. He was a schoolboy standout at Taradale High School.

The 19-year-old midfielder netted on debut in the first transtasman test against Australia in Palmerston North earlier this month and had taken his chance against the classy Kookaburras, ranked No 2 in the world.

“Sean has been tracking pretty well for a couple of years. We’ve watched him incredibly closely towards the end of 2020 and he performed well. We named him in our national squad. He’s settled beautifully into that squad,” men’s coach Darren Smith said.

“We just felt he was in our top 16 and in the end, whether you’ve played no tests or if you’ve played [300] whatever [Shea] Mcaleese has played, you’ve got to take the top 16 players and we thought he was in the top 16.”

New Zealand women’s coach Graham Shaw admitted it was one of the toughest teams to select with only four internationals in 15 months.

Shaw was excited by the potential of the young trio of Shannon, Doar, and Ralph.

“We have some exciting young talent in our ranks, especially Olivia [Shannon], Katie [Doar] and Hope [Ralph] who have stood up in recent years and all have huge futures in the black dress.”