Hager: Where We’re Looking To Grow In This Year’s FIH Pro League

Great Britain's women's coach Mark Hager has outlined his aims as his team prepare for the first game in 2020's FIH Pro League.

Having finished eighth out of nine teams in last year's competition and winning three games out of 16; Hager is aiming higher for the second iteration of the new global league.

Hager's team take on Australia in Sydney this coming Saturday and Sunday, and he said, "We're looking to challenge ourselves.

"Last year we didn't do as well as we'd have liked; we're certainly looking to deliver in our games this year and improve performances on the road, that's something we didn't do well last time out.

"We were disappointed last season and I take some responsibility for that with experimenting, playing people in different positions and using the full squad. It was a bit disjointed but by the time we got to the Olympic Qualifiers late in the year we were more settled.

"That said, last year was an important and valuable piece of the journey on our route to Tokyo. We have had some good training blocks and a great programme over the coming six months which will set us up to excel.

"The real challenge for us is getting consistency in performance."

With the Tokyo Olympics this summer, there are two aims for the FIH Pro League; getting the best possible results and preparing for Japan.

Hager said, "We want a a bit of both. In order to get belief in the team, we've got to get some good results. We're taking 20-odd athletes on this trip, we're hoping everyone will get an opportunity and we're going away again to South Africa in March so hopefully anyone who missed out will get an opportunity later. Then when we get into the home games in Pro League it's when we start to hone in."

Asked if he has a squad in mind for the summer, he commented, "You always have shadow teams but it changes after every game or training session! We've got 26 players all capable of playing in an Olympic games.

"We've got experienced winners from Rio, their challenge is to repeat success, if we can get them to challenge the rest of the group we've got a good chance."

Britain's teams are in action over the next two weekends, with all games live on BT Sport:

Sat 1 Feb Australia v Great Britain (M); 5am UK time

Sat 1 Feb Australia v Great Britain (W); 7:30am

Sun 2 Feb Australia v Great Britain (M); 4am

Sun 2 Feb Australia v Great Britain (W); 6:30am

Sat 8 Feb New Zealand v Great Britain (M); 4am

Sat 8 Feb New Zealand v Great Britain (W); 6:30am

Sun 9 Feb New Zealand v Great Britain (M); 2am

Sun 9 Feb New Zealand v Great Britain (W); 4:30am

BT Sport have now launched a £25 monthly subscription offer with no annual contract - click here to take a look. Before the end of February, there are dozens of international hockey matches on their channels, including some absolute crackers like  India v Netherlands, India v Belgium, Argentina v Netherlands, India v Australia and many more!

The FIH Pro League returns to London in May 2020, with four weekends of fantastic international hockey; one of them back at the Twickenham Stoop.

Season tickets and four-day passes are on general sale right now by clicking here.

If you're a club player, umpire/coach or purchased international hockey tickets in the last three years; you're in the Hockey Family and have exclusive access to tickets until Tue 4 Feb.