President's Update - February 2024 — New Zealand Handball Federation

Greetings, Aotearoa Handball Whānau

A belated welcome to 2024, Kiwi Handball style. It’s only the end of February, but already plenty has happened in 2024 on the New Zealand Handball front, and we are really excited about what the rest of the year holds in store.

Our Men’s Team doing New Zealand proud In the Middle East

What a fantastic way to finish an international tournament!

Our Senior Men’s Team knew they would be up against it when they headed to Bahrain in January for the 21st Asian Men’s Handball Championships. Our previous campaigns to the Asian Champs – Men and Women – have failed to produce a win, despite a couple of close results and periods of footing it with the best Asia had to offer. After four years in the international wilderness, the Men kicked off the 2024 Championships with a lot of ground to make up.

That gap in the level of play we were used to certainly showed in the early games. By the final game of the Championships against India we were staring down the barrel of another winless campaign. But never count a Kiwi out! Superbly led by the ever-green Jimmy Cochrane and a player of the match performance from Paul Ireland, New Zealand powered to a five goal win to finally get the monkey off our back. With a mounting casualty list, it was a massive effort from our men and just reward for all the years of effort that got the team to that point. Congratulations to coach Roland Van Den Tillaar and all the squad for what they achieved. And thanks to our new-found supporters in Bahrain for getting behind the team!

National League

What the latest Asian Championships has taught us is that if we want to be competitive on the international stage, we have to increase the number of competitive games our players are exposed to. There is no substitute for game-time.

With the above in mind, and in response to feedback from around the regions of players hungry for more opportunities to flex their muscles, we are now putting the final touches on the National League concept floated last year. Keep an eye out for further updates over the next few weeks as we lock down the final logistics following consultation with the Regional Associations.

Meantime, we have a calendar of upcoming events. More details will be posted in our event page - https://handball.org.nz/events. Unfortunately, the Trans-Tasman clash we had previously hoped to take place at the start of May has fallen through, but there’s still plenty coming up for everyone!

BEACH

At this time of year, of course, Beach Handball dominates the domestic scene. Another superb programme on the sand has been put together, with the National Beach Championships having just successfully concluded in Christchurch. Congratulations to the Dirty Pigeons from Australia and the Barad-dûr Beach Bros for taking out the Women’s and Men’s titles respectively, and to all who took part. Fantastic to have a team from across the ditch taking part. We have a couple of teams looking to reciprocate for the Aussie Beach Club Champs in April – great to see the Trans-Tasman rivalry and Handball camaraderie thriving. Also pleasing to see the strong uptick in the number of female Beach players coming through, encouraging signs for the future of the Women’s game.

Next up on the Beach calendar is the North v South Championships taking place at the end of March. If you haven’t experienced the excitement of Beach Handball live, that should be a great event to get along to.

Volunteers and admin

Now that we have got the NZ Exec organisational restructure bolted down - Organisation Structure, we are looking out for volunteers to help out with the various portfolio areas. The idea is that many hands make light work – and a heck of a lot more fun!

You can find the EOI details here EOI Form. No prior experience necessary, with each portfolio overseen by one of the Executive Committee. All we are after is people passionate about helping New Zealand Handball become the best that it can be. And there is no shortage of work to be done.

The other volunteer initiative underway at present is the appointment of coaches for our various high performance sides. EOIs are currently in circulation, and we hope to be in a position to make some announcements on that front later in March, with the immediate focus being the launch of the Junior and Youth Men’s campaign for the IHF Trophy later this year.

Of course, Handball in New Zealand is built on the backs of our wonderful volunteers all around the country, outside of the national Exec roles. It is great to hear news of various initiatives kicking off in our Handball centres to set up the year ahead. All the work you do to support grass roots Handball and keeping it going throughout the country is greatly appreciated. You are the life blood of our sport.

Last, and sorry to end on a negative note – we have been plagued by fake Facebook accounts of late, with various unfortunates trying to pass themselves off as NZ Handball. All we can ask is that you be wary, and check that any posting you are following or sharing is the real deal. Our official social media accounts can be found on the top right of our website - CONNECT WITH US. And remember, our livestream YouTube account is NZ Handball Live,we will not ask you to create an account nor pay subscription to view livestream games.

All the best for your Handball in the year ahead

David Ireland

President