After a week of battling it out on the pitches of Pretoria, the South African men's hockey selectors have picked an 18-man squad who leave on Monday for the Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
Due to a combination of retirements and work commitments, the newly named squad contains only six of the 16 players who competed at 2004's Olympics.
And the man who took over the captaining duties for the post-Athens series against England and France earlier this year, Ryan Ravenscroft, has been left out completely.
But with the likes of experienced campaigners Justin King, Craig Fulton and Emile Smith making a return, newly named captain Bruce Jacobs reckons: This is the strongest team we have had since the Olympics.
Despite this optimism, Jacobs and his men are going into next week's tournament with realistic expectations, considering five of the sides they'll be up against (Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan and Korea) are ranked above them in the world standings and only one (hosts Malaysia) below.
Our main focus for the year is the Africa Cup of Nations in October because if we win that we qualify for next year's World Cup in Germany, said Jacobs.
So this is really just part of our preparation. We're being realistic about the tournament in Malaysia and not going in saying we are going to win."
"Obviously we'll be trying to get good results off all the teams but we are hoping that we will definitely be able to get points off Malaysia and New Zealand.
As for his appointment as national captain, Jacobs, who last week guided his Western Province side to victory in the men's interprovincial tournament in Pretoria, added: It's been an amazing week for me. I was very happy about winning IPT and then it was just the cherry on top being selected as national captain.
It's quite a big responsibility but I don't think too much will change as I will carry on my role as leader and motivator.
The SA squad meet at the High Performance Centre on Friday before leaving for Malaysia on Monday.
SA Team
Clyde Abrahams (EP), Reece Basson (BOR), Andrew Cronjé (WP), Ken Forbes (KZN), Craig Fulton (NOR), Darryn Gallagher (KZN), Ricky Gay (SG), Chris Hibbert (EP), Bruce Jacobs (WP), Roscoe Katz (SG), Justin King (KZN), Gareth Matthews (SG), John McInroy (WP), Steve Phillips (SG), Eric Rose-Innes (WP), Emile Smith (NOR), Ian Symons (NOR), Lungile Tsolekile (WP).