Features

Brebant Q & A

Monday, 23rd June 2003

This is a transcript of the Question and Answer session that took place following the second set of player trials for the Manchester Phoenix on Sunday June 22nd 2003.

Answering questions:
Rick Brebant (RB)
Neil Morris (NM)
Andy Costigan (AC)

Question:  How many of the lads playing tonight do you realistically expect to take forward to the team roster?

RB: I don’t want to give away numbers because I don’t want to disappoint any of the other players until we’ve had chance to contact them and let them know one way or another. But I think there’s a lot of raw young talent out there that needs to be given a chance but also we need to spend time with them, and not just say that because things don’t go right on the night that they’re going to ride the pine at the end. These players here are young, hungry and they will be playing for this club this year.

Question: Have Manchester Phoenix signed any former Manchester Storm players?

AC: There have been no official announcements as yet, however it’s fair to say that Rick is in negotiations with a couple of former Manchester Storm players. We are very confident that hopefully two or three of them will agree to join us. We are sure you’ll understand that we don’t want to release any names at the minute because there are other clubs also hovering in the wings.

Question: How many players do you expect to run with?

AC: The breakdown of players is that the Elite League has a commitment to put fifty home grown players on the in the first season. Now with eight teams that works out at six point two and a bit players, so the aim is roughly six home grown players per roster throughout the league. With six potential home grown players, that will leave twelve spaces on the roster for senior pros, and that roughly will be the breakdown of all rosters in the elite league this year. As demonstrated by the trials these past couple of weeks, and by Rick’s earlier answer, we’re along the path to achieving that.

Question: With the demise of the Superleague, what kind of level of hockey can we expect from the Elite League?

RB: I don’t know if the standard is going to drop, it may drop a bit, but one thing you’ve got to realise is that there are only so many positions out there throughout Europe for players to play in and right now in recruiting and talking to most of the agents - if they all want the big bucks and jobs in Italy and Austria and Germany, those jobs are being filled up. There are some good players, we’ve already almost signed guys who have played at the Superleague level. I plan to have a tenacious, good skating, hard working team out there. That’s the plan.

Question: If this league doesn’t get agreement with IHUK as mentioned last week, what will happen with match officials, referees and such?

NM: If for any reason this league doesn’t get affiliation then there is already an agreement in place for officials to be able to work for this league.

AC: It’s also fair to say that affiliation to IHUK is the desired route of all the members of the Elite League. Offers have been put to IHUK, which have this moment in time have been regrettably refused. There is a further meeting of IHUK this week at which we understand the question of Elite League affiliation will be addressed again so hopefully affiliation will happen but, if for whatever reason it doesn’t, there is no mandate to stop the league operating independently.

Question: If that is the case, is the attitude of the rest of the Elite League teams the same as that of Manchester Phoenix?

NM: Manchester is one of the two teams that has been put forward to actually negotiate with IHUK, so it’s myself and Mike Cowley from Coventry, and I can tell you now that at the board meeting two weeks ago, all the directors were unanimous, there is no team that will not play if they don’t affiliate us, so everybody that is at the table at the moment will play ice hockey. We would prefer to be affiliated with them, we are doing our best to negotiate with them. It’s not easy at the end of the day, we want to be affiliated and we want to be recognised, however we also want to do something far more important – we want to play ice hockey, and we will play ice hockey.

Question: With the news today from Belfast and doubts about Nottingham, what’s to stop the Elite League from going down the same road the Superleague did?

NM: It’s no secret to know that all the directors knew about Belfast, we knew about the situation. To be honest, most people through the press knew that Belfast were having problems last year when Ayr were unfortunately having problems and when Manchester were having problems. They were worried that they wouldn’t get through the year, so this isn’t something new. What they’ve done is they’ve gone away, they’ve refinanced the club, they’ve refinanced their company, and they’ve made an offer to their creditors before going to the press that, just so you know, has been positively responded to. In fairness to the comment about Nottingham, the only problem Nottingham have is that they’re having pressure put on them that can’t be put on any other Elite League team, and they’re being pressurised to join an affiliated league.

Question: Are we going to be mixing the lines up, with British and American players, or are we going to play whole lines of British against British?

RB: You coach games to win, and if at some point I could match possibly my first line against their British guys, and it’s all about making sure you keep an eye on what the other coach is doing, then I’m going to do it. My only way of looking at it is I’m gonna have my British players, whether they’re on the ice at the time or not, just playing good hockey, so that I don’t really worry about the odd match up where they’re going to play the top line. It’s about playing a team, and playing the systems as a team, you’re only as strong as your weakest link and if we have everyone on the same page, singing the same tune, you become strong and formidable, but if we have one guy singing a different song - that’s where the let-downs happen.

Question: In the past, we’ve had really good players who have only played when they felt like it, and let us down. Would you get rid of those players?

RB: Before you even get to a situation like that, you make sure that when the guys get in at the beginning of the year you sit down with them as a team, and together you make goals and set how you’re going to achieve those goals. Those guys become responsible to each other, then you create the close-knit group that you have, and then it goes both ways. We have to feel like we’re a big family, fans and players, and we must feel responsible to each other, the players must feel responsible and likewise the fans. Everyone feels like they’re a part. Like it or not, I’ve played for a lot of clubs, as you know, but one thing I must admit – in Sheffield they create a family feeling, a family atmosphere, and they really support their team. I’m not saying that you don’t, but in the past this club in the past few years it’s been the players and the fans and they’re not united as one. Right at the start of the season, we’re going to make these players feel like they’re a part of a family, make the fans feel like they’re a part of that family, and together we’re going to go forward. There will be ups and downs and mistakes and maybe some guys might cross the line, but I’m a believer that you tackle problems there and then in a positive way so that both sides know where they lay, but it’s how you group the players and it’s the type of players you recruit. I’m not gonna say that they can never go out for a drink, but pick your times, you know, don’t do it on a Thursday night when we have a big game Saturday or Sunday.

Question: How sure are we to be playing hockey at the MEN Arena?

NM: I have a contract sat on my desk, all I need to do is sign it and give SMG a deposit for the ice time, so I would say we’re reasonably positive that we’re going to be playing out of the MEN. We’re very positive that we’re going to play out of the most prestigious and successful arena in Europe, why shouldn’t Manchester play out of it?

Question: A question for Rick – do you feel that goaltending will be as important a part of the set-up as it was in the ISL?

RB: If I look at the positions on the team, that is my number one priority. Any quality goalies aren’t going to sign for at least the next two weeks, then they’ll start getting jittery because they’ll run out of jobs! And fortunately I’m in that position and I’m gonna maximise our budget with the best possible players that we can get within that budget. We may not have the fancy players that we’ve had in the past, but we’ll have a team that works hard and works together, and the goalie will be biggest part because a goalie wins and loses games. So it’s up to me to do my homework and make sure that we sign a goalie that will help our team put quite a few ‘w’s in the right column.

Question: We have heard rumours that any British players picked will be expected to give up their day jobs. Is that true or false?

RB: No, we haven’t even pursued that side of it, we’re trying to find out what ice times we can get at the moment. I wouldn’t ask anyone to give up their job unless they wanted to. If they give it up of their choice, that’s their choice.

Question: But if he wasn’t prepared to give it up would that go against him?

RB: No it wouldn’t. But if we can only get nine to eleven in the morning training times, do you understand what I’m saying? We can’t get training times at night, I’ll tell you that right now. We tried, full stop it’s no go. So I’ve got to try and get late afternoons to try and accommodate for all the players, but if it’s not there then we have to do the next best thing. In an ideal world, we’d like to train at six o’clock to seven thirty, eight, to allow everyone freedom to get a part time job or who are already working, working. But we don’t have those parameters, we’re very limited on what we’re able to do right now.

Question: A question for Rick. With the wage cap being pretty low, and let’s face it running with an eighteen man squad isn’t that bad, but are we likely to see you out on the ice or has the body finally had enough?

RB: I think that’s one of the first questions that Neil asked when I was interviewing for the position! I will only put my equipment on if we run through horrendous injuries. At the end of the day I don’t think it’s good to play alongside players that you have to make sure toe the line. I went through it once at Newcastle and all I ended up doing was fighting fires. They don’t see you with two roles or three roles or whatever, they only see you as a player. I will do anything to help this club win, and if it means putting it on for a couple of games because we have some nasty injuries then I will, but my plan right now is in my heart and in my mind I’ve given up the game in terms of playing, but I’m very fortunate to still be involved with the sport I love as a coach.

Question: Of all the coaches that Rick has worked with, who would he like to emulate?

RB: If I look, I would take Kurt Kleinendorst in terms of his preparation and everything, I’d take Chris McSorley for his preparation, and I’d take Mike Blaisdell’s ability to get the best out of his players, and somewhere in the middle I have to keep who I am and what makes me strong, I’m somewhere in the middle in terms of the anally-retentiveness. Kurt is very strict with rules and it’s not a bad thing, it’s just his rules were a little too strict for professional hockey players, in my eyes. Then you have Mike who doesn’t really have any rules, then you have Chris, who was probably not as bad but snaps, so there’s a fine line between the three and I’m trying to find it. You know, Kurt was very strict but he got the guys to do what they did, but he set the parameters early in the year, right off the bat, and guys knew where they stood. We’ll set the parameters but I won’t be the extremes like him and Mike, I’ll probably be somewhere in the middle because at the end of the day we’ve got to get the players playing hockey and we don’t have enough players to drop on the bench if they’re not right or they’re unhappy, so we have to stay positive but stay firm.

Question: Can we try and beat Sheffield this season please?

RB: Nah, we’ll just throw the games to them! (laughs) Seriously, at the end of the day I’ll tell you what my ambitions are, we’re a young club and I want to win everything. Every year I’ve every played the game I’ve went in with that attitude because you know what? If you fall slightly short due to injuries or not getting the right balance, you know what, you still have a bite at a good season. To win things you gotta have a little luck, you gotta have the bounces, and you gotta stay reasonably healthy, and if we can stay that way and we get the right recruits into this club then we’re going for the championship, full stop. You don’t think I wanna beat Sheffield? At the end of the day I probably know Mike and Mike’s coaching better than anyone in this country, so I’ll know what he’ll do and how he’ll do it, and I’ll be ready for it.

Question: You’ve said about bringing in the family, let’s introduce the kids back into the game because I think they’ve been neglected for the past two years.

NM: I totally agree with that. One of the things we are hopefully going to be running, we are hopefully getting the school roadshows back, we’re gonna be going out to schools, out to the shopping centres, we’ll have the players out in the environment and the more we can get out with the kids the better. We’re going to try and bring a lot of people back to hockey to be honest because we’ve lost a lot of people that were involved, a lot of friends that you all know, a lot of people that I know, and I think the kids will always be welcome. And I think one of the other things we’re going to do is see if we can get students to come back, because we miss all the noise they make!

Question: Will you be going beyond Manchester? Will you be reaching to Rochdale and all that?

AC: If people want to come from Australia to watch the Phoenix, we’ll make them welcome. If they want to come from Rochdale, we’ll make them welcome. If they want to come from Salford, we’ll make them welcome. What we want you to do is be passionate, committed fans of the Manchester Phoenix, that’s all we’re after. Where you live is immaterial to us, it really is

Question: Now that we’ve taken the first steps to bringing hockey back, are we any closer to setting up junior development schemes?

NM: What we’re doing tonight is about creating spaces behind us. If you start bringing young guys up from teams that are in the divisions below you, then you create a space behind you and then a space behind that and so on. What we have said we’ll do is we’ll actively work with three of the senior coaches in the area to actively help promote hockey, so if they need help from us with coaching techniques, or if they need players turning up at hockey schools, we’ll do everything we can to make sure that hockey in the north west is supported.

Question: What are the plans for TV coverage?

AC: The Elite League is currently in negotiations with television companies with regards to showing a programme similar to the one shown on Sky sports last year which was a thirty minute magazine type programme with highlights from around the various rinks. The negotiations at the moment are for a sixty minute programme of a similar nature, but there are also talks with a second TV company about showing domestic hockey as well, so yes there are serious negotiations with regards to TV. With regards to local tv, that’s an issue that we’d have to take up independently. We are in talks with the BBC and with Granada, but as a national thing – yes the Elite League is talking to television companies about showing a magazine type programme and a couple of live games later on in the season is also on the agenda.

Question: Do you imagine there will be a fair percentage of ex ISL guys playing in the Elite League? Or will there be new faces?

RB: You’ll get a fair percentage of ex ISL guys, I guarantee you that because I’m talking to quite a few of them. Right now they want too much money but sooner or later they’ll come back! You know, it’s a waiting game, and you may not hear a lot over the next month or so, but it doesn’t mean that we’re not working hard on recruiting. Andy and I work every day, researching players, finding out their attitudes and commitments and play and so on. Just because they’re available doesn’t mean we can afford them, so it’s a waiting game.

AC: We have got a very large net out there fishing for players, we’re not looking just in one direction. As Rick said, we’re spending a lot of time looking, we’ve cast our net far afield. We’re in touch with seventeen agents, we have lists of players coming through, we check them through the people that we know who we’ve built up a rapport with over the years. Rick’s got certain characteristics that he’s looking for in a player, both on and off the ice, and we do a scouting report on every single player that we hear about. We are confident that we will put together a team that will work its nuts off and will entertain and will give you true value for money on the ice and in the MEN Arena.