We're getting back benefit of investing in young Indians: Jay Stacy

Dabang Mumbai is sitting at the top of the points table, and is into the Hockey India League semifinals for the first time since the league's inception in 2013. An unusual place for the team, isn't it?

Well, it's the first time. So, in that respect, it's not normal. But we've always aimed to be up there, and we've made significant improvements over the past five seasons. And that's to the players' as well as the support staff's credit. We've all worked very hard to improve, to get better individually and as a team. And in this season, we're going to reap some of those rewards.

What have you done differently this season as head coach to get the team firing that wasn't happening in the previous ones?

The squad has changed a little bit, by five people. I think we're bettered balanced across the field. But there's also development of the younger players. Some of the Indian boys are playing very well, and the Junior World Cup boys have developed over 12 months. Also, last season, we chose to play the younger boys in the squad in a rotation policy so that they get the experience. We still performed well last year, only missing the playoffs spot by goal difference. This year, they're more experienced in playing at this level and we're starting to get some benefit back from that this year.

You had five Indian players who came into the league with the Junior World Cup (JWC) victory under their belt. How much did that help?

It did help, for sure. But not solely the JWC experience, but also from playing in HIL 2016. In the 12 months between the two HILs, they've played a lot of hockey at the higher levels, they've been to the Australian Hockey League, in different tournaments around the world in preparation to the JWC. So, I think that experience has progressed their development as well.

It seemed that the team lacked a bit of self-belief in the previous seasons. Is getting that self-belief the biggest factor this year?

There's definitely some self-belief. But we started to build that last year by winning those four (consecutive) matches and being close to the playoffs. The player determination has always been there, but it was a bit extra this year to make the playoffs. And the players are buying into what we're trying to do.

As coach, was it difficult to rally your players before the start of this season, considering the team had never made it to the playoffs before?

It's not difficult. Firstly, we worked on the team bonding. The personalities that we have in the team are all team-orientated, before themselves. That's a real principle of the teams that I coach, that the team must come first. And they all agree with that. So, whatever the players do on the pitch and in recovery is aimed at making the team better. And we've got great reward from that, having a genuine team bond.

We started off the preparation at a much higher level than what we did the previous year, and we haven't gone backwards. We've only gone forward from our development last year, which is why we are playing at a higher level this year.

Of your five wins this season, the team has got over the line thrice in the last minute. Has those victories added to the confidence within the group?

Yes, there's no doubt about that. But that just proves that the players are disciplined in sticking to the task. They follow the team process. We think we still have a chance of winning a match from any position. It's not just by luck that we've won matches in the last moments, it's by working hard from minute 1 to minute 60. That's credit to players' character and their desire to win matches.

Looking ahead, do you think you can go all the way? Is this Dabang Mumbai's season?

It could be. It could well be. As long as we keep learning. We review every match, and point out things we could learn. We have to identify the things we're doing very well, and we want to continue to develop those things. If we turn around the negatives into positives and keep improving on our good things, then we're going to be a very hard team to beat by any opposition. Hockey is a funny game, we all know that. But yes, given where we are, and the development within our group, there's still more good hockey to come from Dabang Mumbai.

There's definitely some self-belief. But we started to build that last year by winning those four (consecutive) matches and being close to the playoffs. The player determination has always been there, but it was a bit extra this year to make the playoffs
--Jay Stacy, Dabang Mumbai coach