Bay Harbour: March 28, 2018

Wednesday March 28 2018
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
BAY HARBOUR
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Fire rages, homes at risk
sporting legend
I hear the Black Ferns are
getting professional contracts.
Do you feel we’re at a bit of
a turning point in women’s
sport?
Definitely, we always knew it
was about to happen. Women
are the area of sport that are
now making a huge leap in their
performances. The change in
their ability to play more fulltime,
to show that they can
advance their own sport a lot
further than previously. Giving
them (financial) support is
important as it enables them to
play at a higher level for longer.
In doing that it means you
get really good performances
because they’re becoming more
experienced, they’re becoming
more capable, they’re fitter,
faster, and can develop those
characteristics that you need.
You’re seeing a really great move
right now in the development
of the whole women’s sports
field right across the spectrum
and we’ll continue to do that for
another eight or 10 years until
we get to the top of it.
So how much longer before
there’s an equal playing field?
Equal playing field only ever
means money and in the end
it’s about money through the
gate. Until women are able to
attract the same crowds to their
games as the men it’s difficult
to look at the balance of funds
and I understand that. But it
still means for the next eight
to 10 years women need to be
given support to achieve that.
And unless that happens they
probably won’t ever achieve
it. I think the nature of the
games have become really
well-developed in the sense
that the skill level, the physical
capabilities and the athleticism
of women now is certainly
making it more attractive to a
wider public to watch. So maybe
we’ll increase the gates and
they’ll increase the balance of
pay. That’s how it works. But to
me it’s more about how women
can be successful – that’s the
exciting part. The other part, the
professionalism is another whole
LEGEND: Pat Barwick captained the New Zealand hockey
team for nine years from 1971-79. During her tenure, the
team controversially finished third at the 1975 World Cup in
Edinburgh against England as reported in The Press. Two years
later, she captained New Zealand to victory over England at
Wembley Stadium before 63,000 spectators.
cog in the wheel.
You captained NZ in your
first ever match, how did that
happen and what was it like?
It was pretty interesting. I had
captained one team – the NZ
Universities side for a couple
of matches against Australia
a few years before. But other
than that I’d never been a club
team captain or a Canterbury
or Hawkes Bay captain. So it
was a bit of a mind-blower. I
think a lot of it was to do with
the fact I was the centre half
and when you play in the centre
of the paddock you’re fairly
well connected with everybody
across the pitch. At the time
there were still players in the
team that had been away on
previous internationals so I
was quite surprised because
they were more experienced
and good people. I think it was
a positional issue but maybe I
showed a bit more leadership
quality then than I realised.
When did you go from
playing to coaching?
I retired from the national
team in 1980 – that was the year
we didn’t go to the Olympics
and I pretty much retired
straight away. I was still playing
for the Canterbury team and
they asked me to be a player
coach which was unusual at that
level but I did it with the help
of a manager-coach. So I got
into that level pretty quickly. I
had about six good years with
Canterbury hockey and then I
was able to put my name in the
hat for the national side.
Do you see us being world
champions any time soon?
We’ve been in the top four
in the last two Olympic Games
and that’s massive. They’re
a top team and they’ve been
performing extremely well over
the last few years. Getting in the
top four in the world in hockey
is up there and to do it twice
in a row that’s been quite an
achievement.
Do you think the funding for
NZ Hockey is adequate?
I think we’re pretty well
supported by high performance
funding and other agencies.
We have a good foundation
that supports the players and
the teams when they have
to centralise in Auckland.
Our people are centralised in
Auckland, and they train as
much as they can – probably
not quite as much as a fully paid
athlete but they’re still getting
a lot of training. I think we’re
doing about as well as we can
expect at the moment. Certainly
funding is pretty generous on
New Zealand terms, we don’t
have all the money in the world,
we’re a small country and can’t
support everything.
I hear you’re retiring from
your coaching adviser role at
Sport Canterbury?
I’m having my farewell this
afternoon actually, I’m finishing
up today. I’ve had twelve and a
half years here so it’s been one
of my longer terms of work
through my life. It’s a really
enjoyable environment; lots
of passionate people doing
things to help other passionate
people. It’s a great environment
of positivity to walk into every
morning so it makes work easy.
I’ll miss the people. I’m a people
person and enjoy watching them
grow and develop and learn. It’s
the teacher in me as well as the
coach. So personally I will miss
those regular contacts but I’ll be
out doing things.
So what’s the plan this
afternoon?
We’re wrapping up the week
with a bit of a party after work
and I’m going to have a bit of
fun for a few hours so that will
be really nice, a nice casual
send-off.
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