PERHAPS it's time for sports schools to be involved in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) as this league can be a useful platform for the development of talented students in the long run.
It's important for these cream-of-the-crop players to gain exposure by competing in this elite league. Playing against the best in the country will help these youngsters to mature faster, both individually and as part of a collective, in terms of teamwork and team spirit.
These players will also have the chance to play against foreign talents, which can be useful, provided they return for subsequent seasons.
As part of the learning process when competing against these top clubs, youngsters need to cultivate a strong mindset to fight it out in every single game and not be afraid of being psychologically affected or easily defeated, thereby building up their mental strength in the process.
There are two initiatives that can be implemented to provide youngsters the opportunity to be part of the MHL.
The first is to have the participation of two national-level sports schools – Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) and Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School (TMISS) in Bandar Penawar, Johor – as well as the respective state sports schools.
For the record, BJSS and TMISS both have hockey as one of the sporting activities that fall under the purview of the Education Ministry and Malaysia Schools Sports Council (MSSM).
Although teams from these respective schools have been competing in the Malaysia Junior League and have proven themselves to be in a class above the rest, their progress is stunted as playing in the same age group will not help much in terms of their overall learning and maturity development.
The MHL used to have two divisions, namely the Premier Division and Division One. However, BJSS, TMISS, Seberang Temerloh School, Anderson School in Ipoh and others only participated in Division One, which did not have the highest of standards, even with the inclusion of pre-university students in their respective squads.
All said and done, both the national and state sports schools ─ with help from the Ministry of Sports as well as the Malaysia Schools Sports Council (MSSM) ─ have been doing a great job.
For instance, these schools provide 95 per cent of the players in the current national and national juniors squads. Imagine if they were to participate in the MHL; a bigger talent pool can be produced for the foreseeable future.
The second initiative is to garner the of all the national and state sports schools. We can use the zonal system to put together four teams ─ from the north, east, central and south ─ of their best players.
The north zone will be represented by sports schools from Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Perak. The central from Kuala Lumpur and Selangor while Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor make up the south. One of the zones could also be represented by the best players from Sabah.
We can leave out players from Thunderbolts as they are already part of a project group ─ comprising players from BJSS, TIMSS, Anderson School and Seberang Temerloh School ─ that have been participating in the MHL.
Of course, all these can be conducted with the help of the Sports Ministry, Malaysia Schools Sports Council (MSSM) and the respective state schools sports council.
Players aside, coaches from these zonal teams can also gain added experience and learn a new trick or two from drawing up strategies against their more established counterparts.
Anyway, kudos to the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) for successfully organising the MHL amidst the pandemic, even if it is centrally-held under a sports bubble with strict Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) as it is no easy task with all the restrictions in place for 14 teams to battle it out in the men's Premier and women's categories.
Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), Terengganu Hockey Team (THT), Tenaga Nasional (TNB), TNB Thunderbolts, Maybank, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Sabah and Nurinsafi compete in the men's Premier category.
The women’s affair has been contested by PKS UniTen, Police Blue Warriors, Mutiara Impian, Sabah, Young Tigress and UniKL Ladies.
By affording the various national teams the experience of playing a tournament within a sports bubble, the ongoing MHL is also a good dry run or ‘rehearsal’ for the various national teams as the players will now know what to expect in the near future.
The senior men's team, for example, is scheduled to play in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh in June and compete in the Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka, Bangladesh in October.
Besides that, they are scheduled to play some test matches against teams, such as Britain and Japan, as part of their preparation for upcoming tournaments.
As it is, congratulations to UniKL for their third consecutive league title win since 2019. They played a total of 33 games in all and won 30 with three matches ending in a draw. They also scored 128 goals and conceded 24 in the process.
Here is a breakdown of UniKL's remarkable achievement:
In 2019: THT: Drew 2-2, Won 3-1; UiTM: Won 2-1, 11-0; TNB: Won 3-1, 4-2; Nurinafi: Won 3-1, 6-1; Thunderbolts: Won 4-1, 2-0; Maybank: Won 5-1, 2-1
In 2020: THT: Won 3-2, 2-0; Hockademy: Won 3-1, 6-0; UiTM: Won 7-0, 4-0; Thunderbolts: Won 4-2, 3-1; Nurinsafi: Won 3-0, 9-1; Maybank: Won 4-2, 4-0; TNB: Won 1-0, Drew 1-1
In 2021: TNB: Drew 0-0; THT: Won 4-2; Sabah: Won 4-0; Nurinsafi: Won 11-0; UiTM: Won 3-0; Thunderbolts: 4-0; Maybank: Won 1-0
Under coach Megat Azfariq Megat Termizi, UniKL will now have the chance for a treble win for the second season running by either clinching the overall title or the TNB Cup by defeating TNB in the finals today.
UniKL beat TNB 3-1 in the return leg of the semi-finals on Wednesday to make it 4-1 on aggregate.
THT, under coach K. Rajan, are in the finals after the Terengganu side defeated Maybank 2-1 in the return leg of the semi-finals on Wednesday for a 4-1 aggregate win.
To make it even sweeter, UniKL Ladies, under coach Roslan Jamaluddin, also made the finals for the Vivian Soars Cup. This was after their 11-0 aggregate win over Sabah in the semi-finals.
UniKL, who had earlier won the league title, will take on defending champions PKS Uniten-KPT in the finals on Saturday.
PKS Uniten-KPT, with Lailin Abu Hassan as coach, made the finals after defeating Police Blue Warriors on an away-goals ruling after the teams were tied 4-4 on aggregate.
Good luck to all the finalists. And stay safe everyone. ─ The Vibes, 3 April, 2021
