5 minute read
Blair Hopping
from SOUTH - April 20201
by Times Media
Blair in action v Malaysia, August 2009. Photo courtesy Dave Lintott & Hockey NZ
BLAIR HOPPING –unforgotten silver
Many of those who have faced off against former local, Blair Hopping, would argue he was a tiger on the turf. Despite no longer bully-ing the opposition at Olympic level, this highly-capped sportsman knows what it takes to stick it out at the top level, as JON RAWLINSON discovered.
Sport serves up moments players would rather forget, but there are also some they’ll remember forever. Former Olympian, Blair Hopping, has experienced both.
“At Athens and Beijing [Olympics], we were (pretty much) only about 30 seconds away from having a shot at a medal match before missing out, so we came close more than once. That’s how it goes in sport sometimes,” he says. “On the other hand, in Manchester [Commonwealth Games], we played Pakistan in the semi-final and won 7-1. That was the first time we’d ever beaten them, let alone trounce them as we did. Everything in that game just seemed to work. We missed out against Aussie in the final but standing on that podium was awesome, a very cool experience.” Originally from Waipipi (Awhitu), Blair clocked up an impressive 264 caps, from 2000-2012, for the Men’s Black Sticks. Having represented New Zealand at two Commonwealth Games (Manchester and Melbourne), three Olympics (Athens, Beijing and London) and three World Cups, he knows what it takes to prepare for a major tournament. If the Olympics do go ahead as planned, he says hampered preparations will be a hurdle all squads will need to overcome.
“Preparing for the Olympics you’re trying to get fit, up to speed, perfect the best combinations and refine your tactics. It’s not easy to do that with training alone so you need games to try things and see what works under pressure. “I don’t know where other teams are at but it will have been a struggle just getting together to train let alone play. I’d imagine all the teams will come into the games being pretty raw so it’s anyone’s game.”
While the Women’s Black Sticks have never claimed an Olympic medal in hockey, their male counterparts claimed gold at the 1976 Montreal games.
“The competition, worldwide, has become a lot stronger since then. We’re now competing against fulltime professionals, which doesn’t make it easy when many of our players still need to work,” Blair says. “More funding would help; they’re trying and I’d like to say it’s improving but it is [a vicious circle], funding comes with performance but, in many ways, performance requires funding.”
Despite this, Blair is cautiously optimistic that both Black Sticks squads (men and women) could rise to the occasion in Tokyo.
“They [men’s Black Sticks] were making some good progress with the [FIH Hockey] World League giving them regular, top level competition before the pandemic. They’ve lost some experience to retirement but they’ve also had some real strength back in with Nick Wilson making himself available and Simon Child recovered from injury. They have devastating strike power.”
Strike power is important but the squad will need to put in the hard yards through stonewall-style
Blair Hopping
defence, something for which Blair gained quite the reputation during his playing days.
“Quality defence is essential too. I played more midfield when I was young but I was often called on to do more defending, which I never shied away from. It wasn’t really until I made the New Zealand team that I was selected as a defender,” he recalls. “For many years Andrew Massey was my coach through age group and rep’ stuff. I think he saw a good level of ability in me and certainly put time into helping me play at my best, teaching me a lot about how to be a good defender.”
A tough nut on turf, Blair credits local grassroots with helping grow his skills. stick when I was only three or four. My mum and brother used to play so I went along to watch them, mucking around on the sideline. My brother’s team was short one day and it all went from there. I played a lot for Waiuku College and Kohekohe [club] before I went to Waikato University.”
Even before hanging up his boots, Blair began working at Onehungabased Tiger Turf. He says an understanding employer is a decided asset for sportspeople.
“I worked at Rangitoto College after university, teaching PE and coaching the 1ST XI. They were happy to give me the time I needed to train and travel. I started at Tiger Turf around 2008. [Former Black Stick] Darren Smith was moving on from there and suggested I give it a go. “We have quite a long list of representative hockey players who have worked here, or still do. The business has always been flexible so players can take time to train and compete.”
Now working as Tiger Turf’s operations manager, Blair has also had some involvement in development and sales.
“My background has its benefits for sure, when I’m looking at how a surface will perform, I get involved in developing new products. If a surface doesn’t play well, it makes life very difficult indeed.”
For now, getting to grips with top turf – rather than playing on top of it – is as close to hockey as Blair tends to come. And yet, he says a return to coaching is not out of the question.
“I’ve never been a diehard watcher of hockey because I tend to get frustrated; it can make me want to be out there myself,” he says.
“Most of my involvement with sport is now through my kids. Tyler (6) plays soccer and Chase (8) played a year of hockey and was reasonably handy at it but now plays rugby and touch.
“If one grows up to be an All White and the other an All Black I’ll be reasonably happy with that, whatever works!” he jokes. “It might depend on what the kids do but I wouldn’t say no to coaching again down the track.”
Photo Wayne Martin
