Shane McLeod has been Head Coach to the Belgium Red Lions since 2015. In that time he has led the team to gold medals at the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 EuroHockey Championships, plus silver at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In the past two seasons, the team has also risen to the top of the World Rankings.
Unsurprisingly, McLeod, who is a New Zealander and played for the national team, has twice been voted Coach of the Year – in 2017 and 2018.
Here, he talks about Belgium’s return to international action and the opening encounter with European rivals Spain in the first FIH Hockey Pro League matches since the latest global lockdown.
What hockey competition have your players managed to get under their belts since Christmas?
Shane McLeod: “Christmas has traditionally been a time when we have released our players from the centralised programme and they do a lot of work individually. It is usually an opportunity for them to spend time with family and friends. But, this year, in Belgium it has been a bit more difficult to do that so the guys have really invested in their own personal development stuff. So we see the players come back from that break and they are in pretty good shape and they are ready for the confutation of the Pro League and the beginning of a really big year for us.”
How ready do you think the team is for a return to international hockey?
Shane McLeod: “Like most teams we are keen to play some games so we can see where we are at exactly. I am very happy with the work they have been doing. They have been playing a lot against each other. It is not really until you see a game against Spain, for example, to see if we have made some gains and where we are sitting against a team that is always really competitive. Then we will know what things we can work on.”
During the long break, have you found the opportunity to work with your players in a way that was perhaps not possible when life was following its normal pace? Can you give any examples?
Shane McLeod: “For a long time within our programme we have managed to do a lot of individual stuff with our group. With the Covid break, the players were all able to look at their own personal development stuff. We certainly, as a coaching staff, were able to support that and encourage that type of behaviour when we weren’t able to be together or when we were in small groups. Have we made some gains in technical development? I would suggest ‘yes’. Have players had a chance to reflect and enjoy what international hockey has brought to them so far? A time away has allowed us to do quite a bit of planning and understand what our aims and values are as we go into the Olympic Games in Tokyo.”
What do you hope to see from your team during these two fixtures against Spain?
Shane McLeod: “What myself and the other coaching staff would like to see in the matches against Spain is probably a consistent improvement throughout each quarter. That is always nice. It has been such a long time since we played. It’s been over a month and in hockey terms for us it is a substantial period of time. We will be looking at players, how players have come through the Christmas period. We have also been lucky enough to have a camp at the moment so it will be interesting to see high performers from the camp getting rewarded with matches against Spain. So my hope is that individually players are proud of their performance but what’s most important for us is that collectively we do a good job against good opposition.”
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