George Muir: Tridents player discusses the Hockey Premier League season to date, previews Mavericks clash

The Hockey Premier League continues this weekend with a couple of exciting matchups – one of which being the Tridents clash against the Mavericks in Whangarei. 

George Muir, Black Sticks and Tridents player, caught up with D'Arcy to discuss the season so far and preview their match later today. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
At seven seventeen. The Premium Hockey League continues this weekend.
Some exciting matchups, no doubt. One of those is the Tridents,
that's the team of the Auckland region if you will,
taking on the Mavericks. That game is set to go
in fang Ai this afternoon. George Muir as a player

(00:33):
for the Tridents, a former Blackstick as well, last appeared
back in twenty twenty at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Who's
going to join us now talk about this season and
preview the match later today. Good day, George. You're looking
forward to the weekend, are.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
You, hey, Darcy, Yeah, looking forward to it, mate. Had
a great weekend last weekend. We played some good hockey,
only came away with one out of two wins. So
we've got all to play for this weekend, so we'll
make sure we get those four points today.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Pretty tight competition, right, so you really got to come
out of the blocks pretty damn quick. You can't afford
to be coming from behind, hey.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
At least not last Yeah, exactly. And we've we've only
had the three games so far, in two of them
are have been against the Alpiners and has been our
two losses. So so long as we get wins from
the next few games, I think we'll find them again
in the final.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
So you're running it's six rounds, isn't it for this competition?
And there are men's and women's teams and there it's
a four team competition segmented right across our tia. So
that's the nature of it. She's brief and fairly tight.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
That's one no time to warm into it. You really
got to have the ground running. So by you say
we've got the four teams and we've got the Falcons
and the Mavericks left to play, we play the Mavericks
twice and the Falcons once more and then it's straight
into the finals weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
You're playing in Fun. What's the reception going to be
like in the Farish North? Are they fans of hockey
up there?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
What's their turf like they are actually from? From from
what we've heard, we're expecting a really good reception. And
we've got a few local boys in the team, so
that'll be really cool to have a home game up
in Fun day. I haven't played there for a few years,
but last time I was there the turfs were great,
so expecting the same conditions.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
It must be super cool to be touring with the
Wahini from the Tridents as well, because they're playing at
one o'clock you're straight on the turf and at three o'clock.
I'm presuming you have some association with the other team
or do you just keep well away from them?

Speaker 3 (02:38):
No, no, it is, it is. It's really cool. We're
all one big Trident's fino and so we'll go there
with them and our supporters as well. It'll come up
from North Harboro and Auckland and counties. But we trained
to like we train at the same time as the
Wahmi and we're doing things together. Mixinum England will be
there to support them, they'll be there to support us.
So it's pretty cool that we can travel together, watch

(03:00):
each other play and then you know, win and lose
together as well.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Just wouldn't together leave it at that one. Doing some
vague research on you which most people are listening game
What you do? Research? Will I do? From time to time?
You played for the Black Sticks. You tave me what
about twelve years ago. You haven't fired a shot and
the anger in the last handful of years. Are you
quite comfortable now that you're kind of on past that
and you're playing in this league instead, or do you

(03:26):
still harbor hopes of getting back to that top level
what five years down the track.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
I'm pretty comfortable with where I'm at. Really really happy
to be playing for the Tridents, though it was a
bit of a shock to the system, what you say.
It's been a few years, so a bit of a
shock to the system getting back to this level of hockey.
But it's really cool testing my body and testing myself
at that level of game. But yeah, really happy to
be playing for the Tridents. I'm not sure for if

(03:53):
I'm still got that ambition to keep going any further.
At the stage in my career.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Game gets faster and faster and faster, you probably get
the stitch mate, you'll fall over out of breath, right.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
It does. And you used to have been a winter
own at the moment. So playing in the heat of
the summer is bringing back the memories of playing in
Malaysia or Japan and that sort of thing. So it's
actually pretty cool as well to sweat it out in
the summer.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
How's the strength of the field hockey in New Zealand currently?

Speaker 3 (04:18):
I think the talent talent wise, it's as good as
it's been in many years. Obviously, the Black stats aren't
playing in the Pro League at the moment, but we're
getting really good results of the Both teams have won
the Nation's Cup in recent years and so now it's
about making sure when it comes to those pinnacle events
we can peak at those events. But I think the

(04:41):
futures right as well. We've got both junior teams heading
off to the Junior World Cup, so we'll be really
eagerly watching to see how how we fare there and
test ourselves against those junior nations as well.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
It's on the way the Black Sticks, both men and
women have really kind of chewed that top level competition.
You basically can't afford it, which is kind of odd,
But I think the stain you've made is very very
good because it's a well played sport here in New Zealand.
It's well supported. You just need someone to pay for it.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
That's the one. It's always struck me as quite odd
that we had such good support and so such a
good network in New Zealand, but financially we haven't always had,
I guess the backing, but I think hopefully that can change,
and competitions like the Premier Hockey League are really good
for that. We get a lot of support and backing

(05:33):
behind the franchises for that, and so hopefully that can
feed into the national program a little more as well, because,
like you saying that the support's there from the nation,
the player base is there, so for us to perform
better at the world stage, I think that would really
help to have more of the financial backing as well.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk Said Be on Saturday mornings,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio