Maurits Hendriks, FIH Master Coach, spoke to stick2hckey.com on Extra-Time play between Shers
and Warriors.

The innovative concept of reducing men in the field after a tough fight proved to be a dampner. But I am sure this will dazzle under the lights once teams get used to it.

The idea is to make it more attacking Instead the teams were new to the concept and made it more defensive. The Maratha Warriors versus Sher-E-Jallandhar encounter saw the first time a match in the Premier Hockey League going into extra-time, which presented an opportunity to test the new experimental rule of having reduced number of players. After the regulation period ended goalless, for the first period of
the seven and half minutes 2 players in each side were pulled out by their respective coaches according to the new rules and as it still remained deadlocked, for the second half of the extra time of 7-and-half
minutes, two more players were reduced making it a virtually 6-a-side hockey with the goalkeeper making it 7a-side..

The game was dull, slow and lacked any innovative play by both sides and for the packed crowd on the main stands it was an anticlimax after the thrilling hockey they witnessed during the 70 minutes.

Spain coach and consultant to PHL, Maurits Hendriks: It is the wrong attitude of the two teams and their coaches. They are scared. Today we saw an example of not how to do it, but how not to do it.

The attitude of the two teams was really disappointing. Instead of removing defensive players, they removed their attacking players. What happened to Gagan. Is he injured? Maurits said immediately after
seeing Gagan rested. Jallandhar’s decision to rest their spearheads Gagan Ajit Singh and
Deepak Thakur in the first period drew severe criticism from the Master coach.

If there is more space it is natural to attack more. Otherwise the players are complaining that there is not space and when you have space, you are not ready to play.

Losing the match in penalties is more disappointing than losing during the game.

But Hendriks, who guided Spain to the Champions Trophy gold last month and has won the Olympics and World Cup gold as coach with Holland, acceded that the rule needs some modification to force the players
into being more attacking.

May be we need to have a rule where a team has to reach the opponents 25-yard line within 20 seconds or they lose possession. We also have to understand that the coaches and teams were not prepared for the new rule. But it is not for tiredness.. If you have energy to defend, then you have energy to attack also.

You have to keep one man in the circle. No point all the players falling back in defence. If your man is up there then two defenders will watch him and mark him. Then you get more space to score. It is better to lose here after fighting than to leave it to chance in the shootout.

A s2h special