There is arguably no bigger name in the sport than Ric Charlesworth.

The mastercoach led the womens national side to back to back Olympic gold in 1996 and 2000 before taking over the men’s side and moulding them into the number one side in the world.

Also a qualified doctor, the Federal Member for Perth for 10 years and the second inductee into the Australian Hockey Hall of Fame, his coaching exploits followed a successful playing career that saw him represent Australia at four Olympic Games, the last of those in 1988.

The weekend wasn’t his first visit to Tamworth.

He recalled first coming here in 1979.

“We played our National Championships here and then in the ’80s we played some Test matches here,” he said, noting that the set-up today is very different to what it was back then.

The purpose this time was to help out at the Athlete Acceleration Program camp.

Charlesworth was suitably impressed by what he saw.

He said programs like the AAP are important as not only a player pathway and for developing players, but also in helping grab a share of the talent market.

“Every sport in the country is competing for talent and in our sport we’ve got  very good national teams. 

“We are ranked one and three in the world, so they’re amongst the best in the world and they win medals at major championships which we don’t have many sports that do, so the fight for talent’s important,” he said.

“Regional NSW and  regional Queensland, are critical areas for us in our sport so nurturing this talent is very important and these sorts of weekends are a great opportunity for the kids.

“And they are the building blocks of the sport.”

He spoke to them about not being scared of making mistakes.

“I said to them earlier ‘be willing to make mistakes but make sure you learn from them’,” he said, adding that how you go about playing and preparing every day is what makes you good.

“You don’t have a bolt of lightning and suddenly you’re a better player. 

“It’s iterative. Bit by bit by bit you get better, and if they want to and love doing it then it will happen.”

Often mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Wayne Bennett and Kevin Sheedy, Charlesworth said he tried to be the coach that he would have liked to have.

“I tried to make the game interesting and challenging,” he said.

“I think the most interesting part of the game is trying to score a goal and so that was our focus.

“But the platform on which you build a team is good defence so you’ve got to cover everything.” 

The game has changed a lot during his time, for the better he proffered.

“The rule changes in the game have been terrific for the game – it flows continuously,” he said.

There’s still scope for more changes, he believes.

He likes the innovation of field goals being worth two points as has been introduced into the Hockey India League this year.

He wouldn’t mind dispensing with penalty corners all together, using instead a power play, although he pointed out he is in the minority there.

There’s not much else he’d do, aside from cut the number of players on the field back to nine “so you give yourself more space”.

“You’ve got to make the game harder to defend so that you give an incentive to people to be aggressive and try to score,” he said.

Also a handy cricketer, Charlesworth played 47 first-class matches for Western Australia and alongside some of the legends of the game.

“I played with Dennis Lillee and he was pretty special,” he said.

He’s as good a bowler as he’s seen in his time.

As for best batter, he found it hard to go past Viv Richards.

He also mentioned Sachin Tendulkar and current Kiwi star Kane Williamson. Charlesworth saw a fair bit of him working as the high performance manager for New Zealand cricket.

The likes of Williamson and Tim Southee were coming through then.

And  what of the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos’ chances in Rio.?

“Our teams are ranked number three and number one in the world and that probably reflects our chances,” Charlesworth said.

“If we play to our standard we can win a couple of medals.

“But it’s a hard gig.”