Hockey legend Ric Charlesworth has expressed strong interest in becoming head coach of the Australian men’s team after the Beijing Olympics.

Charlesworth, 58, one of the code’s greatest players and most respected figures, admitted yesterday the prospect of returning to head coaching at elite level is enticing.
The men’s job will be vacant after the Olympics because coach Barry Dancer is ending his seven-year reign.

Charlesworth is mulling over whether he will apply and his stunning portfolio will make him one of the favourites if he decides to do so.

He is currently close to splitting with the Indian hockey following a difficult time in his one-year contract which expires in December. He was hired as a consultant but feels his message is not getting through.

“(Coaching in Australia) is one of the possibilities ahead of me . . . it depends on the next week and how this thing in India resolves itself,” Charlesworth said.

“If I am interested at all it will be in the men’s team. I have done the job with the women. I spent a long time with that program.”

The men’s team could prove especially attractive to Charlesworth given his son Jonno played with several young stars at international youth level who are now surging into the top team.

Charlesworth has lived a life of high achievement. A qualified doctor, he was a member of federal parliament for a decade, has written three books, captained Western Australia in Sheffield Shield cricket as was recently employed as New Zealand cricket’s high performance manager.

No lesser judge that recently retired Australian cricket coach John Buchanan felt Charlesworth would have made an excellent Australian cricket coach.

Though famed for his deeds with an Australian women’s team he moulded into one of the most dominant female sporting teams in the world, Charlesworth would be more interested in linking with the men’s side which he has never coached.

Charlesworth left mainstream hockey coaching after guiding the women’s team to the gold medal in Sydney.

The catch could be getting a clearance from the International Hockey Federation who sanctioned his deal with India.

“I have said to India if you keep doing what you are doing you will keep getting what you are getting,” Charlesworth said.

“My job was advisory and there in not much more I can do. They need to take some action. That is what it comes down to. Whether it goes any further depends on what they do.”

Courtesy: Robert Craddock