PETALING JAYA: Rexy Mainaky wants to smash it right this time.
As national coaching director, Rexy has been given a full mandate and the Indonesian is working hard to implement the right coaching structure as he prepares to lead the squad towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
And he has hit the ground running.
He has announced a four-year contract for all the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) coaches, thus eliminating the room to make constant changes in the coaching set-up.
Rexy Mainaky chart
The numerous structural changes had prevented coaches from focusing on the same players for long-term goals.
Rexy is also in the process of hiring a head coach for the singles and women’s doubles teams.
Indonesia’s Mulyo Handoyo and Denmark’s Kenneth Jonassen are in the list for the singles job while Rosman Razak may be considered for the women’s doubles post.
The 63-year-old Mulyo guided Taufik Hidayat to the 2004 Olympic gold in the men’s singles and also coached India’s K. Srikanth, Lakshya Sen and H. S. Prannoy in 2017.
Kenneth, 50, has been the head coach for the Danish national team for the past 11 years and but is set to leave his position at the end of this year.
The BAM are looking to replace men’s singles coaches Hendrawan, who will leave the national body at the end of this month after 15 years and Datuk Tey Seu Bock, who has been moved to the junior team.
Whoever comes in will have his hands full as Rexy is looking to improve the quality of the singles players.
Currently, the men’s singles players in the senior team are Ng Tze Yong, Leong Jun Hao, Justin Hoh and Eogene Ewe.
Jacky Kok, Chua Kim Sheng, Ong Zhen Yi and Lee Jan Jireh were axed from the team recently.
“We are looking at several candidates including Mulyo and Kenneth. We have set a Key Performance Index (KPI) for the new coach,” said Rexy, after overseeing a training session at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara yesterday.
“We want to produce at least three or four players, who can win points for the team in the 2026 Thomas Cup Finals.
“We also want to produce World Tour Super 500 title and above title winners. None of our men’s singles players including Tze Yong have even won a Super 500 title.
“In France, Alex Lanier, who is only 19, has won a Super 750 title.
‘‘We also want our singles team to produce better results just like our doubles teams,” added Rexy.
Rexy said the BAM have decided on the supremo for the women’s doubles squad but could not reveal the name yet.
It’s however learnt that Rosman, who used to coach the women’s doubles department before leaving for the Philippines and is currently coaching the professionals, has been approached.
“We have made a decision on the women’s doubles head coach and we hope the coach can join next month or latest in December.
“We can’t reveal the name yet based on an agreement with the coach but we will make an announcement once everything is finalised,” he added.
Hoon Thien How, who was previously leading the women’s doubles team, has been moved to the junior men’s doubles team.
Currently, national No. 1 Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are the only women’s doubles pair assured of their spot in the national team while Teoh Mei Xing, Go Pei Kee, Lee Xin Jie, Tan Zhing Yi, Cheng Su Hui, Amanda Yap, Chan Wen Tse, Chong Jie Yu, Vanessa Ng and Vannee Gobi will only know their fates after they are evaluated by the new head coach.
