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McAleese: the man with stickability

Brendon Egan brendon.egan@stuff.co.nz

Shea McAleese isn’t afraid to admit there’ll be tears when he brings the curtain down on his 16-year Black Sticks career in Tokyo.

The 36-year-old defender will bow out from international hockey whenever New Zealand’s Olympic campaign comes to an end. He wanted to make his last tournament with the team, that means so much to him, one to remember.

McAleese has been a constant for the Black Sticks since debuting at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia in 2005, amassing 310 caps – the fourth most in New Zealand’s men’s history.

This will be his fourth Olympics, also attending four Commonwealth Games, collecting silver on the Gold Coast in 2018.

Matching it with the European powerhouses, Australia, India and Argentina hadn’t been easy for the Black Sticks men, but every win over their more fancied opponents had been satisfying.

The Black Sticks (ranked ninth in the world) arrive in Tokyo with limited expectations, outside their own playing group. McAleese said they thrived on the underdog tag. They open group play against world No 5 India today.

When the whistle blows on his long career in Tokyo, McAleese expects there will be emotion – something wife Jaimee, nee Lovett, who represented New Zealand in canoeing at the 2016 Games, had already teased him about.

‘‘My wife has had a bit of a laugh at me. At emotional movies I tend to shed a tear and things like that. I think that’s a typical sportsman and sportswoman – we ride the highs and lows of sport and that can bring out emotional things within you.

‘‘That will be a bit of a sad day, but it’s one of those things. It’s not my shirt to own. It’s my shirt for a period of time and I just want to leave it in a better place.’’

McAleese, a born-and-bred Napier lad, has done the Black Sticks’ shirt justice.

He has stuck with the side through some lean patches, including 2019, where New Zealand went winless from 14 games in the inaugural

FIH Pro League.

There have been major highs – scoring a shootout goal against England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games to sew up bronze, and returning from the 2018 Commonwealth Games with silver.

Mixed in have been some crushing lows. McAleese labelled the 3-2 quarterfinal loss to Germany at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where they squandered a 2-0 lead with four minutes left, as his darkest moment.

Despite being outclassed by world

No 1 Australia in Olympic warm-up series in Palmerston North and Perth prior to the Games, McAleese believed the Black Sticks could again play spoilers.

Covid-19 meant they hadn’t competed against any other international opponents since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, giving them the element of surprise.

‘‘One of the reasons I’ve wanted to keep playing as well is the belief I have in this group.

‘‘We’re going to be a bit of a dark horse come the Olympics for a lot of teams, but we’ve got the belief that we can go over there and do some damage and that’s the thing we’re targeting.’’

New Zealand have been grouped with India (fifth in the FIH rankings), Australia (first), Argentina (fourth), Spain (eighth), and hosts Japan

(15th).

‘‘We’ve got the belief that we can go over there and do some damage.’’

Shea McAleese

Sport

en-nz

2021-07-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282428467212838

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