TERENCE Arthur Walsh is back in Malaysia as a coaching Technical Director.
Better known around the globe as Terry Walsh, he last coached Malaysia from 1990-1994, and yesterday he answered questions on why he made it back to our shores after being unceremoniously hounded out 21 years.
"The reason I am back is because there have been many positive changes in the administration of hockey in the country," was his blunt opening statement.
And then he gave an insight which hit the nail spot on: "Australians do not reveal much, but when they do it good that one listens. I was told (by Australian coaches and players) that Malaysian players have great potential, but they just do not know how to do it...."
And he gave an example: "I was watching Malaysia play India in the quarter-finals of the World League Semi-finals from thousands of miles away and after taking a 2-1 lead, they lost their Olympic hope to two penalty corners (lost 3-2).
"They showed great potential by coming back from a goal down to lead 2-1, but after that, they just did not know what to do."
Walsh signed a two-plus-two contract with the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) and his primary job is to educate the coaches and players.
For starters, he will conduct a two-day coaching seminar from Monday for 14 FIH Level Three Malaysian coaches, and in two weeks time will sit down with the MHC Coaching committee to select the chief coach.
The other revelation made by Terry was that other races have been left out of the hockey fraternity.
"Malaysia had and I believe has many good players from all segments (races) and we need to bring them back into the game to form a lethal combustion which will take the nation into the top 10 or even top eight in the world.
In the 90s there were many non-Malays playing hockey for the country, but today, only goalkeeper S. Kumar and Baljit Singh remain in the senior team, while there are no non-Malays in the Project 2016 squad as well as in the women's teams.
When asked if he will chance the playing system: "No, there are many good things in how the team plays now, but we need to chance some factors to make everything linear and then we can start by becoming better in the Asian level, before looking at the world tournaments."
Walsh was the chief coach of India from 2013 to 2014, but a left after getting caught in red tape, but not before making sure India become Asian Games champions and qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
As for Malaysia, the three important senior tournaments in 2018 are the World Cup, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
This year, the juniors would be involved in a Junior World Cup qualifier, when Kuantan plays hosts to the Junior Asia Cup.
