AFTER finishing fifth last year, Tenaga Nasional Thunderbolts have higher ambitions in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) starting on Jan 10.
With 15 national juniors to bank on, Thunderbolts coach Nor Saiful Zaini sees no reason for his boys to fear any team.
Saiful, who was a National Juniors coach until the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) “terminated” all their coaches except for Roelant Oltmans, also has eight TNB development players who have matured.
“There is no reason to fear any team as we have 15 national juniors as well as eight TNB development players to make an impact in the MHL.
“The only two teams which we will have a tough time against are UniKL (Universiti Kuala Lumpur) and THT (Terengganu Hockey Team),” said Saiful.
The MHC gave their coaches a three month “break” and all of them can re-apply for their positions which will be advertised in the media soon.
In the meantime, the coaches can secure jobs with clubs in the MHL.
“We played a friendly against UniKL recently and the final score was 5-5. But we can’t take anything but experience from this game, as UniKL did not have their four foreign signings with them for the match.
“THT will be another challenging side, but I believe there should not be any excuses against the rest,” said Saiful.
The others are NurInsafi, Maybank, Universiti Teknologi Mara and HockAdemy KL.
The MHL will also serve as training for Saiful’s juniors to prepare for the Junior Asia Cup in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
“The Dhaka tournament is a Junior World Cup Qualifier, and it is good to have the bulk of our players in one team in the MHL,” said Saiful.
Thunderbolts will open their campaign against Tenaga Nasional, their sister club, on day one itself and their true strength will be known early.