KUALA LUMPUR: National hockey skipper Azlan Misron has won titles with every team he has played with in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL).
In 2002, he began his MHL career by winning the Premier Division title with Tenaga Nasional.
The next year, he won the double – the league and overall titles – with Tenaga.
He then moved to Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (then known as Ernst and Young). After two barren years, he won the league title for seven seasons with the club. He also won four doubles with KLHC.
He joined the Terengganu hockey team last year. He went on to prove that he is indeed the man with the Midas touch – capturing the league title with Terengganu recently.
And, he is now on the verge of adding the overall title as well.
So, why has he switched clubs so often?
According to him, it’s “to seek new challenges”.
Hopefully, his need for challenges will spur him to steer Terengganu to the double this year.
“Terengganu had a bad start to the MHL last year as we only had local players and things didn’t go as planned,” said Azlan.
“This year, we are much stronger with the inclusion of quality local players and the five South Koreans.”
Terengganu won the Premier Divison by winning nine matches and losing just once – a 2-1 setback at the hands of KLHC in the first round.
The east coast team will play Maybank in the semi-finals, first leg of the TNB Cup (overall title) in Kuala Terengganu on Wednesday.
They are odds-on favourites to make the final for the first time but Azlan has warned his team-mates not to underestimate the bankers.
“We are playing well but the 10-day break we’ve enjoyed could come back to haunt us,” said Azlan.
“Maybank have had two matches (in the playoffs) to prepare ... we must be ready to hit the ground running. They (Maybank) have some good players and I’m sure they will be well-prepared.”
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