Similar stories but different outlooks for Irish hockey sides

Alan Good

STATEMENTS of intent can be risky business in sport; succeed and you’re lauded for having confidence and belief, but failure can be doubly painful when you’ve handed out the brickbats yourself in advance.

The Irish rugby team learned this the hard way at the World Cup in 2007, and the country’s women’s hockey team can probably empathise now too.

Their stated goal of Olympic qualification isn’t off the agenda just yet — they get another shot in early 2012 — but last week's EuroHockey Nations Championship campaign, which had London 2012 places up for grabs, can only be classed as a disappointment.

Ireland didn’t just go out and give this a lash; this was the best prepared Irish women’s side ever sent to a European championships, by virtue of the decision to centralise the squad to Dublin from last October, allowing them to spend 20 hours a week training together.

The early signs were good; higher-ranked India and Azerbaijan were both seen off in style in Dublin in June, with Ireland showing greater fluency and flair.

But it all unravelled come crunch time. Winning against lower-ranked Belgium was the minimum requirement; upsetting Germany or England to qualify for the semi-finals the next goal, as Olympic berths would then be in sight.

As it happened, two damp squibs of 3-0 losses to Germany and Belgium ended those hopes. A 3-1 defeat to England in a dead rubber followed, but the girls in green deserve huge credit for overcoming the odds and getting it together in the classification games, getting among the goals to see off the Azeris 3-1 and Italy 4-1 to avoid relegation to Europe’s second tier. Ireland will overtake the Azeris to jump up a place to 13th in the world.

All’s well that ends well? Not quite.

Centralisation was Ireland coach Gene Muller’s brainchild, a controversial plan which split Irish hockey people down the middle. But for all the hours put in, Ireland look no closer to toppling a major nation — which they must do at least once during any tournament where Olympic or World Cup qualification is on the line.

There has been tangible improvements in the side, but perhaps the programme is not at fault; too few of this current Ireland squad possess the x-factor or all-round class of predecessors such as Rachael Kohler, Suzanne Beaney, Karen Bateman or Linda Caulfield. One can’t help but wonder what they might have achieved with the same resources at their disposal.

It’s hard to knock Irish hockey’s ambition — 'why compete if you don’t think you can succeed' is a sporting truism — but the net result of these Europeans is that Ireland have underperformed.

The mood hasn’t been helped by the mixed messages emanating from the camp. Muller stated in the preamble that Germany was his preferred scalp, as qualification of England for semi-finals created an extra Olympic place. But after the 3-0 defeat, he had seemingly revised expectations downwards: “We came into this game not expecting to win but we had to set our own targets of wanting to do well.”

Then, Belgian coach Pascal Kina scoffed at suggestions made by Muller prior to the tournament that the Belgians had been preparing solely for the Irish game “for two years”.

Such anomalies must only add to the pressure, but Muller is well aware of his detractors in Irish hockey; he has batted away the flak amid determined conviction in his own methods.

Few doubt how hard he and his players worked to succeed at this tournament, but in the advent of centralisation, supporters could reasonably expect Ireland to at least start putting the frighteners on the top nations, which didn’t really happen. Sport is a results business, and Muller will know better than anyone of the backlash that may await should Ireland flop again in next year’s qualifiers.

By that same results yardstick, the Irish men fared little better on the face of it, bar managing to register a win in the pool stages. Yet there is a feelgood factor surrounding the team as they continue their Olympic quest. What gives?

Ireland’s men annexed three trophies this summer prior to the Europeans — the Celtic Cup, Champions Challenge II and INSEP Five Nations — beating three world top 12 sides along the way despite being ranked 18th themselves.

And on the big stage in Moechengladbach, they put it up to the big nations; only a late goal copper-fastened a 4-2 win for world number four side England, while Ireland went down 7-4 to third-ranked the Netherlands in a hugely entertaining contest, defeating the French 2-0 in between.

They subsequently handed Russia an 8-2 annihilation to retain top tier status, before twice coming from behind to see off Spain (world number five) 3-2 and match their best-ever European finish of fifth, achieved in 1995.

Men’s coach Paul Revington has rightly admitted his side still have much to do defensively, but they are now the equal of the majority of the world’s best sides in an attacking sense; a far cry from the ultra-guarded effort which ultimately saw them relegated at the 2007 Euros.

One can’t escape the feeling that there is currently more potential within the men’s side to upset the odds; while ranked lower than their female counterparts, the chasm between the top eight and next eight women’s teams is absent from the men’s game, with standards far closer across the board.

All be revealed early next year, but there’s no doubting which of Ireland’s coaches will be feeling more confident about their side’s chances.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/SoOR_mUq0K8/post.aspx

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