Ross Stott is a former Scottish Hockey international, who has gone to two Commonwealth Games, Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014 and has played over 100 times for his country. In his first article for the Half Court Press, he gives his opinion on International selection in his sport.
Over the years it has seemed that the process of selection to play for your country has changed a lot. When I was younger and starting out my journey at international level at age groups, there was two ways that this would happen, one would be being asked to come along to a weekend training session by the head coach. This would be the case if the coach watched one or two of your games and you impressed them enough that they wanted to take a look at you. The other way, which is how it happened for me, and the most common way is to play in the Inter District tournament. What this is, is a tournament of the best players at the age groups of U14, U16 and U18 from each district of the West, North, East, Midlands and the Highlands. This was the first taste of selection process I had as to be selected for your district you had to go to trials. If you where successful in being selected for your district then you had an opportunity to impress the age group Scotland coaches and be invited to attend training session, fitness testing, etc…
This format is still the same in some countries, you just have to look at nations like Germany, Holland and Belguim with the number of new players that have come along recently. From what I can see and heard that players who have been playing well in the league have had the opportunity to train and have rails with their country, which would make sense. Reward those who have been performing well for their club and not just to rely on those with the big names who haven’t been playing well, makes sense right? This is how I think it should be, give those who have played well a chance and who knows they might turn out to be the next big thing in world hockey. Now bare in mind that these aforementioned countries are very much professional, with lots of money coming from sponsors which makes it easier to fully concentrate on hockey, but they are still picking the best players at the time and not on past performances, this is not the case with some countries and this is where I think the issue lays.
Look at Great Britain (GB), they have a centralised program in 4 year cycles, which sounds great but can you really say that in 4 years there isn’t any players who have outperformed these centralised players but has never got the chance of a trail because they weren’t deemed good enough 3 years before? I don’t believe that you can predict that the players who have been given a contract will still be one of the “best” in the country in the next 3 years. Yes, there has been additions to the squad but where have those players come from? They have come from the EPD – Elite Development Program (GB Hockey youth system). How many players have just come from a club playing in the league, working a full time job and not involved in any set up? Having playing in England for near 10 years now I can honestly sat that there has been better players overlooked. Now to play for your country is always an honour and means that you are one of the best players in your country, but with GB i don’t think that is the case. There is a lot of players, fans, coaches that think that the best players haven’t been selected or even giving a trial but players who’s face fits have. It seems that you don’t have to be the best player any more but have the best face to fit or be a yes man. There are players who are double Olympians which is a scary thought when you compare them to players who haven’t even got a cap or trial. It’s quite embarrassing actually. I know we have all got different opinions on what makes a good player and what doesn’t but i think we can all say that there has been players overlooked from the home nations because their face did’t fit or they weren’t a yes man. To be selected for GB these days it seems like you just have to be really good at saying yes for 4 or 8 years and you can go to two Olympics.
If we look at the selection for Tokyo, Danny Kerry selections where questioned by a lot of people outside the program. Now as coach it is his right to pick who he wants and believes will win, but how can you leave out a proven goal scorer, natural goal scorer and someone who has finished top goal scorer in the league 4 out of the last 5 years like Alan Forsyth? Surely you pick your best players right? Now I know people will say he doesn’t do it on International level or i’m just saying cause I’m Scottish, but I am saying it because I want to see the best payers play. I know that some of the best players aren’t always the best team players but isn’t that a risk you take for someone who will score goals? And I know for a fact that Alan is one of the best teammates you can ask for and does everything for his team. Not only was Alan not selected or used but Harry Martin as well. With someone who has been to two Olympics and numerous International caps and tournaments, surely you would want them on the pitch? Again these are my opinions on international selection, and I think there was players selected for Tokyo that not only shouldn’t have been selected for Tokyo but shouldn’t be in the program. To me this just shows that you don’t have to be the best players these days but the best at saying yes and your face fitting in.
Will be interesting to see what happens next with the Centralised Program, but I think the money used in the Program should go to clubs to make league more competitive, but also produce more player that are capable playing international and better players. But this only works if the selction process changes and not relying on the same players for 4 year cycles. The way forward should be like the British Lions, select the best players that are performing at the time of an event but I guess time will only tell.