Thomas Briels about continued selection at Red Lions: “Comparison with Red Devils is tiresome” | The stand

Did the Red Lions win silver or lose gold at the World Cup in India? It’s a question we probably wouldn’t ask in any other team sport in Belgium. But the disappointment of the Lions themselves after the defeat in the World Cup final shows why the temptation is great. Victim of their own success.

Thomas Briels retired as captain of the Red Lions after the Olympic gold in Tokyo. He sympathized enormously from Belgium during the first grand final of his former teammates, which he himself was not there.

Briels knows how disappointed they were, but according to him there is only one correct answer to the above question. Belgium won silver. And not just for the sake of the medal.

What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

“In hindsight, the lost Olympic final in Rio in 2016 was a godsend,” he says in De Tribune.

“Not at the time, of course, but afterwards we learned so much from it. National coach Shane McLeod showed us the lost Rio final again in its entirety before the Games in Tokyo.”

“That was very painful, but we were confronted with the facts. We played to never have that feeling again. That taught us a lot.”

You can learn a lot from defeats, unless it is the age that plays tricks on a team. You can’t win that battle. The comparison with the Red Devils is quickly made in Belgium in a team sport.

Too fast, says Thomas Briels. “That comparison is too easy and I think that the current Red Lions are also getting tired of it. This group is in the final of a World Cup. They lose because of a detail in shoot-outs. Just copy them.”

The ex-captain of the Red Lions does not hear any signals that his former teammates are thinking of stopping. He himself was 34 years old when he put an end to his career as an international, but he still plays in the Dutch league with Oranje Rood.

“There is no end date on a hockey career.”

“That is very individual and depends, among other things, on (serious) injuries and your mental drive. At the age of 37, for example, you can also take on a different role within a team.”

“The Olympic Games in Paris will be there in a year and a half. That is nothing in top sport. And the Games are the highest achievable in our sport.”

Yet no formula for success in sport is for eternity. Vincent Vanasch is 35, John-John Dohmen too, Tom Boon and Sébastien Dockier are 33 and Felix Denayer will also be that old tomorrow.

For now, they all continue. Logical, says Thomas Briels. Although he does see a potential pitfall if the current generation continues to connect its fates.

“You have to make sure that at a certain moment ten players do not stop at the same time and therefore ten new guys have to be fitted in at the same time. Then it would take a while before the current level can be reached again.”

“There is certainly talent ready. Maxime Van Oost already played very well in the final. Very eager and good in one-on-one duels. Thibeau Stockbroekx was in the stands, but I know him well and he is fast and can score a goal But all talents will first and foremost have to play a permanent value out of the team.”

“When I was 19 years old, I was asked, so to speak: ‘you have some talent, do you want to play for the national team?’ and if you said yes, you played for the national team. Now that is of course completely different .”

Young talent that shows that they have the necessary level has a major advantage, according to Briels. That player can, as it were, benefit from a suction effect.

“If you look at Antoine Kina, Victor Wegnez or Arthur Desloover, you see that they have taken steps incredibly quickly with the national team.”

“There is a culture at the Red Lions that you are easily sucked into the level, with the way of training, but also with the values ​​and standards of the Red Lions on and off the field.”