The former Premier League football physio spurring Norwich to success

Rod Gilmour of The Hockey Paper speaks to the Norfolk club whose fitness drive has propelled them to Conference hockey for the first time

A former Premier League football club head physio has been behind the resurgence of a Norfolk men’s hockey team which, after 30 years of trying, secured promotion to the Conference for the first time this season.

Stuart Wardle, 40, spent several years attending to soccer stars on Saturdays as head physio at Norwich City FC but is now free to captain Norwich City HC men’s 1s, with the club sitting third in the Conference Midlands after four games.

There’s no denying the fact that Wardle’s influence in making fitness a key cog in their weekly training has completely changed the outlook of the squad. So much so that it is now filtering down the club, too.

“Being inside [the club] you don’t quite see it, but when I take a step back and reflect on where we are it is quite a turnaround for a club like ours,” says Wardle.

A physiotherapist by trade, Wardle moved to Norwich from Crystal Palace FC. Saturday afternoon priorities meant that he then had to stop playing hockey when he became the club’s head physio - “the idiot who runs on the pitch with a bag,” he says - and could only train with the club. He was only able to play hockey properly again in 2018 after leaving the football club after seven years.

Wardle, who now runs his own practice in Norwich, says: “Coming from my background in professional sport I could see if you look at, say, Championship football teams, the difference between the quality of players was very small, it was our fitness skills which were lacking.”

The right midfielder soon introduced fitness into the squad’s Tuesday and Thursday training programme. “Change is never easy but it has become the norm now,” he adds.

Last season, Norwich won every game bar one, which came a week after promotion was secured. Their fitness drive meant that they always seemed to have the upper hand, while they were able to overcome teams in the latter stages if they found themselves behind in games.

“Hockey, like any sport, is much easier when you're not tired,” Wardle states. “It was in games when we scored late goals that players realised that they did feel different when we saw the opposition shattered. We introduced what we called ‘relentlessness’, where we kept on going even if they didn't. That was a big change.”

Wardle admits that some of the older players at the club thought differently to the inclusion of fitness to weekly training. “We have had to fight opinion in the early stages,” he says. “They said we had the pitch for four hours per week and we need to be playing hockey and players doing fitness outside of that. Those comments have stopped now.”

As with most sides, the age of the squad ranges from teens to mid-forties at Norwich City, while influential coach Fraser Smith is younger than most of the players. The team also includes three Cooke brothers: goalkeeper, defensive midfielder and their star striker, Cameron. “There is a huge sweep in ages, but the core of the team has been playing for a few years now, which I guess in amateur sport is their prime and that’s the key.”

Having overcome apathy towards Wardle’s plan, the club has seen a fitness focus outside of the 1s, with the 2s joining in the same drills on a Tuesday, while the 3s have also introduced fitness for 20 minutes at the start of their session. Wardle says of the 2s: “That’s important to get right as they are only training once per week. The fact that they have embraced it is great and they were unbeaten last year in a league which wasn’t easy.”

For club president Ali Wardale, success has been a long time coming. He was part of the talks to merge longstanding clubs Norfolk Wanderers and Grasshoppers to Norwich City in 1990, which first marked the vision to become a National League side.

“The reason for the merger was to put together a team in Norwich that would gain promotion to the National League. It has taken 32 years but we got there in the end!” he says.

Their Taverham-based pitch was built in 1996 when a consortium was put together for a new home, before a second pitch was laid a decade ago. The club now has seven men’s and women’s teams.

“The aim is to stay in the Conference,” says Wardle. “We’ve had a reasonably good start. Our women’s side finished second in their league last year so there is a push to get them promoted too. The sport is pretty vibrant in Norwich and a lot of hockey is being played.”

Saturday: City Of Peterborough v Norwich City, 2pm