Shane McLeod has been the most successful field hockey coach
internationally in recent years. With the Belgium men, the New Zealander won the 2018 World Cup title and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, among other titles. After his retirement, he still acted as assistant coach to his successor Michel van den Heuvel for the past two years. Now the 54-year-old, who has twice been named FIH Coach of the Year (2017/2018), has announced that he will leave Belgium after eight years and will first continue his career as a consultant at Hamburg Polo Club until the final.
final of the country league season.
Shane McLeod: “I am excited to join the Hamburg Polo Club. It gives me the opportunity to work with great players and to learn a different style of play. My hope is to be able to bring some new ideas to help the team’s performance.
The club has been very welcoming and I look forward to working with Matthias Witthaus and the rest of the team.”
At the German vice-champion, the joy at the support of the successful coach is enormous. Happy to welcome Shane as a new member of the Polo family. He will inspire the team, the club and all the hockey fans”, says Frank Schmidt, HPC board member. McLeod will be primarily active in the area of game analysis and training design. “For the team, it’s a completely different approach for a change,” says Matthias Witthaus, who has run the Polo men’s fortunes almost single-handedly for eight years and has risen with the team from the Oberliga to the First League in that time. . “There have already been a couple of meetings with Shane via Zoom. That has already shown that we will definitely benefit from cooperation. Personally, I will also be able to take some things with me there.”
The former player of the New Zealand national team (1996 to 1998) already knows parts of the team well. Of the five “Black Sticks” playing for Hamburg Polo Club this season, only Hugo Inglis was part of Shane McLeod’s team at the London Olympics in 2012, who led New Zealand men in the top ten in the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 and London. but
Blair Tarrant, Kane Russell, Aidan Sarikaya and Nic Woods were also part of the New Zealand Hockey Federation talent pool at the time.
In addition, for the participation in the final tournament of the Euro Hockey League at Easter in Amsterdam, the role of Shane McLeod is very valuable for the HPC, because he knows European club hockey well, having won two national titles as a coach. of the Waterloo Ducks (BEL) and participated with them in the EHL, before taking over full-time in Belgium in 2015 as the men’s national team.
