To run a tournament of this magnitude, Hockey Ireland is seeking a team of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers. Full support, training and induction is provided to all volunteers who come on board for this exciting tournament.

Volunteer Manager

This role will involve assisting in recruitment and the management & coordination of all tournament volunteers. The candidate should be available throughout the tournament, and for meetings in the weeks leading up to the event. Access to email is essential.

Team / Official Liaison Officer

This role will involve liaison with officials appointed to the tournament as well as assisting in the appointment and management of team liaison officers needed. Again, the candidate should be available for the duration of the tournament with particular attention needed in the week prior to the start. Access to a car preferable and access to email is essential.

Gate

This role involves dealing with public, taking in payment, scanning online tickets, generally run in shifts of 4 hours each (one per match)

Team / Official Liaison Officers

8 officers needed in total (1 per team), access to a car preferable, availability from team arrival to departure required, ability to speak team language a bonus

Media Centre Management

Manage the media centre to ensure that all media needs are covered

Stewards

Panel of people required, run in shifts of 4 hours each (4 stewards per match), dealing with the public, answering queries – stands, changing rooms

Mascot management

Coordination of mascots for Ireland games only, communication with clubs and/or schools, escort & meet mascots on match days

Ball patrol

Organisation & coordination of ball patrol for all matches (6/8 per match)

Transport Manager

Coordinate with the coach company transporting teams, from arrival to departure and for all transfers to and from hotel.

If you would like to be part of the organisation of this event please complete the attached application form and return it to info@irelandhockey.sportlomo.com

Volunteer Application FIH Series Finals.docx

Sean Dancer has today been announced as the new Head Coach for the Irish senior women’s hockey team.

Dancer brings a wealth of experience to the role. Having represented Australia himself at U21 level, Dancer began his coaching career while playing for the Heracles club in Antwerp, Belgium. He became National Junior Head Coach for the Belgian U16 women’s squad in 2007 before moving to New Zealand in 2009 to be High Performance Manager for the Wellington Hockey Association. Following this, he held several pivotal roles within Hockey New Zealand, including National Assistant Coach to the ‘Black Sticks’ men’s squad, National Junior Head Coach for the U21 NZ women, and National Assistant Coach to the ‘Black Sticks’ women’s squad – where he has been positioned since 2014.

Highlights of his tenure as assistant coach to the New Zealand women’s team include a 4th place finish in Rio in 2016, along with securing Common Wealth Gold in 2018. During this period the team has also enjoyed unprecedented success with the side maintaining their world ranking and never dropping outside 6th in the world.

In January 2019, he took on the Interim Head Coach role, with the purpose of guiding the team into the new FIH Pro League Competition, with the team within striking distance of a top four/semi-final position after the first half of the competition.

“We are delighted with the appointment of Sean, who emerged as the top candidate in a thorough and competitive recruitment process. His experience and skill set will be a great asset to Hockey Ireland and we look forward to him getting involved with our ambitious high-performance plans” said Hockey Ireland CEO, Jerome Pels.

Speaking on the move, Dancer said he had thoroughly enjoyed his time with Hockey NZ over the last 10 years. “Apart from developing some great NZ friendships, I have also had the opportunity to coach with, and learn from, some of the world’s best coaches Mark Hager and Shane McLeod. I am grateful and proud of the team’s progress and their achievements to date.

To be provided with the chance to lead a quality programme and team on the World stage, is something that I have personally aspired to for a long period of time. I am grateful to Hockey Ireland for this opportunity and I’m excited to continue, and add to, the team’s World class performances over the last 12 months.”

Commenting on the appointment Hockey Ireland High Performance Director Adam Grainger said, “Hockey Ireland, and the Senior Women’s Team specifically, are very fortunate to secure the appointment of Sean Dancer as Head Coach. With it being mid-Olympic cycle, internationally recognised coaches like Sean with Head Coach and Olympic experience are not easily found. Sean comes into a well-established and strong management team and will no doubt have a significant positive impact as we build towards Olympic qualification.”

Hockey Ireland will host the FIH Series Finals for Women between June 8th and 16th 2019 in Banbridge Hockey Club. This tournament is the first step to Olympic qualification for the senior women’s team and will also be the first opportunity for the Irish public to watch the Green Army play since winning a silver medal at the World Cup in 2018. Both the Senior Women’s and Men’s teams have been working tirelessly with the support of Sport Ireland, Sport Ireland Institute, and Sport Northern Ireland staff, building and preparing for the upcoming FIH Series Finals.

While home-hosted FIH Series Finals in June and Olympic Qualification are the pinnacle of a busy year, there is also the EuroHockey Championships to look forward to in Belgium this August. The Irish Senior Men’s team will also compete in the FIH Series Final in Le Touquet (France) 15-23 June 2019.

To purchase tickets or find further information on the FIH Series Final tournament in Banbridge this June, please see: https://www.irelandhockey.sportlomo.com/buy-tickets/

For further information please contact:

Emma Porter

Marketing & Communications Manager – Hockey Ireland

Phone: 01-7163264

Email: emma.porter@irelandhockey.sportlomo.com

Hockey Ireland will host FIH Series Finals for Women between June 8th and 16th 2019 in Banbridge Hockey Club. This tournament is the first step to Olympic qualification for the senior women’s team and will also be the first opportunity for the Irish public to watch the women play since winning a silver medal at the World Cup in 2018.

SoftCo’s sponsorship of the Irish Women’s Hockey Team, who reached the World Cup Final last August, was recognized as ‘Sports Sponsorship of the Year’ at the 2019 Irish Sport Industry Awards. The squad became the first Irish team to reach a World Cup final. These achievements were later recognized as the silver medal winning team were announced as 2018 Team of the Year at the RTE Sports Awards.

SoftCo faced strong competition for the 2019 Irish Sport Industry Awards Best Sports Sponsorship of the Year Award from:

– Vodafone and Irish Rugby
– Lidl and Ladies Gaelic Football
– Liberty Insurance and Camogie
– Allianz and Paralympics Ireland

In December, 2018 SoftCo announced the extension of its main sponsorship agreement for the Irish Women’s Hockey team up until at least 2021. The partnership with Hockey Ireland will incorporate the 2019 European Championships and the team’s qualification campaign to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“We are delighted to be recognized by The Federation of Irish Sport for ‘Best Sponsorship’. The heroics of the team at the 2018 World Cup was inspirational and we were thrilled to be a part of it.”

Susan Spence, Co-Founder, SoftCo

                                                                                         Women’s Irish Hockey Challenge Final

Dromore 1 (C Whan) Clonmel 0

Chelsey Whan’s sweet penalty corner finish propelled Domore to their second ever women’s Irish Hockey Challenge title as they edged out Clonmel at Serpentine Avenue 1-0.

The Challenge – formerly the May Costley Cup – is Irish hockey’s most unpredictable competition and Dromore became the tenth different winner in the last 10 years, adding to their success in 2008.

They did it in style, working lovely patterns in their forward lines while stifling Clonmel’s attacking threats for long periods with a controlled display.

Indeed, they bossed the first half but could not make that superiority count. Four penalty corners were charged down by the tight-knit Clonmel defence with Katie McDonald shooting over from the follow-up of their first corner 10 minutes in.

The interchanges between Emma Wilson, Hannah Buchanan and Emer Melville were causing problems but they kept running into defensive brick walls with Betty Barlow a key figure in shutting them out.

And, on the break, the Tipperary outfit did have their moments with Jill Shanahan the focal point of their attack. She raced through and turned on a six-pence to open up a shooting chance but it flashed wide of the right post.

The pick of the Dromore openings came two minutes before half-time but Ana Clarke could not get full force behind her shot and the confident Jenny O’Brien booted clear, leaving it 0-0 at half-time.

The second half followed a similar pattern with Dromore holding most of the play with their forward triangle causing problems but Susan Meaney’s side were resolute in their task.

Again, Shanahan almost latched onto breaking ball in the circle for Clonmel but they were eventually caught in the 51st minute.

It came following a wave of attacks which led to a penalty corner. Clonmel broke the line, reducing the numbers for the set piece, and Dromore cleverly worked the ball around the circle to Katie McDonald. She arrowed across from right to left where Whan was waiting to gleefully sweep home.

From there, they looked the more likely to kick on and make the game safe until the last five minutes when Clonmel produced a rousing volley of attacks with plenty of long balls wreaking havoc.

And they thought they had their equaliser from their sole penalty corner. It was switched to the injector by Barlow to Maeve Murphy who struck crisply first time but Eve Hughes brilliantly got across to save with her knee.

With that scare over, Dromore regained their composure to stay clear to the final whistle with some calm work, running down the time for a famous win.

Dromore: E Hughes, H Hanna, A Clarke, T Malcolmson, C Whan, S Wilson, N Laverty, E Mills, K McDonald, J Carson, H Buchanan, R Dougan, A Hughes, T Wilson, A McMullan, E Wilson, T Kelly, E Melville

Clonmel: J O’Brien, K Ronan, A Deely, B Barlow, E O’Dea, P Corcoran, R Boland, G Boland, S Meaney, M Mulcahy, B Ryan, R Moroney, K O’Sullivan, H Ronan, A Browne, M Murphy, C O’Connor, J Shanahan, N Boyle

Umpires: J Fisher, P Shields

 


 

Men’s Irish Hockey Challenge Final

Ballynahinch 4 (W Edgar 2, M Martin, S Leetch) Limerick 3 (V Biais 2, N Eacrett)

Willie Edgar produced two pieces of individual brilliance to win the men’s Irish Hockey Challenge final for Ballynahinch at Serpentine Avenue in a superb display of expansive attacking hockey against Limerick.

It saw them retain the title in style, making it three wins overall in this competition since 2012.

Intent from both sides was clear from the very start with Max Clein deflecting just wide for Limerick in the opening seconds while Hinch’s Alex Millar had two big chances almost immediately.

It went back and forth at break-neck speed with goals soon starting to flow. Limerick skipper Nathan Eacrett picked out a lovely diagonal ball into the path of Victor Biais who controlled on the spin to open the chance and then flicked in beautifully.

Hinch swapped the lead with barely 18 minutes gone as Matthew Martin’s thunderous shot equalised and then Scott Leetch finished off for 2-1 at the right post after a left-wing cross caused havoc.

Biais was not long waiting for his second goal, however, as Nick Lampp’s free just outside the 23m line opened the door and the striker picked out the top corner with a flick by Aaron Donnell – 2-2 at half-time.

The Ulster side, though, always look the more composed side with former Inst man Martin and Edgar having that touch of class to go with it.

The second half was slightly tighter but Hinch started to run up the corner count, necessitating lots of rearguard work from Justin Scheffel and his defensive team.

Limerick kept out seven set pieces but parity ended when Edgar went on a virtuoso run down the right channel and pulled off an audacious scoop which went in off the stanchion of crossbar and post.

That was with 13 minutes to go and he made it 4-2 a minute later, this time weaving his way out of traffic and selling the goalkeeper a dummy before rolling into an open net.

Nathan Eacrett slammed in a reverse from Limerick’s only penalty corner with five minutes to go, making things lively for the latter stages. But Ballynahinch had the nous to see out the endgame and lift the crown for a third time.

Ballynahinch: A Donnell, S Crean, T Crean, S Hunter, A Brown, L Harrison, R Coffey, M Martin, A Millar, W Edgar, J Campbell, S Leetch, L Curry, A Mulholland, M Brown, D Marshall, M Carney, J Higginson, A McIlwaine

Limerick: J Scheffel, S Lilburn, C Oggel, N Eacrett, Q Eacrett, A Smith, D Kelly, E Hannon, J Smith, C Duggan, B Smyth, N Lampp, A Khan, V Biais, M Clein, D Potts

Umpires: S Jenkins, D Pearson

Stephen Findlater

Women’s Irish Hockey Trophy final

Cork C of I 4 (H Honner 2, K Gaffney, K Coombes) Greenfields 2 (A McGovern, M Holden)

Cork C of I produced a remarkable second half comeback to win the women’s Irish Hocket Trophy for the third time, fighting back from 2-0 down to beat Greenfields 4-2 at Serpentine Avenue.

In truth, they were the stand-out side in the final, winning 13 penalty corners which they eventually made tell. It was a similar story in the semi-final when they trailed to NUIG before running out 2-1 winners.

The tie, indeed, looked to be one-way traffic in the opening stages as they ran up four penalty corners in the first four minutes but nothing would stick for them in a frustrating spell.

Then, out of the blue, Greenfields forged an attack through Rebecca Gilligan with the ball worked through to Alacoque McGovern alone around the p-spot. She took her time before shooting through the defences of Sarah Wrixon for a seventh minute lead.

Again, C of I went forward with purpose with Hannah Honner a livewire bursting down the right flank with Hollie Moffett and Mel Ryan driving things on.

Sarah Dunleavy and Aine Collins performed heroics at the back to stymie the waves of attacks and they once again took their chance when it came in the 23rd minute.

This time, Charlotte Elliott got off a shot that Sarah Wrixon got down brilliantly to deny but Meabh Holden followed up on her reverse to slide in for 2-0.

Things got worse for the Cork side when Holly Sweetnam was shown a yellow before half-time and a couple more attacking corners went awry.

Their frustrations continued in the early stages of the second half with Moffett and the influential Nicola Kerr planting shots into the chest of Sinead Collins.

Moffett’s deflected corner shot hit the front of the post but their breakthrough eventually did come when Kerr crossed and Honner scrambled home the ball, 2-1 with 24 minutes to go.

It released the floodgates and they were level with 14 minutes to go when they went the direct route from corner number 11, Kay Gaffney smashing home, skipping their usual array of switches.

Honner then gave them the lead with less than 10 minutes to go, a superbly worked corner move with a touch in front of Sinead Collins.

Greenfields almost sent the tie to shoot-out when Aine Collins cracked a shot off the crossbar but the game was killed off when Kirsty Coombes tore through the centre of the field and slipped home the fourth goal.

Cork C of I: S Wrixon, H Sweetnam, N Kerr, C Sexton, R Kingston, O Crowley, A Roberts, A O’Mahony, J Coyne, E O’Hara, H Moffett, S Baker, H Honner, K Coombes, M Ryan, K Gaffney, J Barry, L McHugh

Greenfields: S Collins, S Dunleavy, K Dunleavy, R Gilligan, A McGovern, C Moore, T Garrett, S Tierney, J Anderson, A Finnerty, E O’Connor, C Elliott, A Hennessy, M Holden, Z O’Toole, A Collins, S Burke, J Langan

Umpires: C Brophy, R Christie

Stephen Findlater

Freelance Journalist

With the teams confirmed for the Irish Senior Cup Lisnagarvey, Three Rock Rovers, Loreto and Cork Harlequins will battle it out on the 11th May 2019. While work is ongoing on the two new top-class pitches in Dublin, the National Sports Campus and UCD, Three Rock Rovers Hockey Club have taken up hosting duties for the Irish Senior Cup Finals day, one of the highlights of the domestic calendar. The central venue will provide an ideal location for the large number of supporters and spectators who regularly attend these finals.

Please see the schedule below:

Saturday 11th May 2019

13:30 Loreto HC v Cork Harlequins HC

15:45 Three Rock Rovers HC v Lisnagarvey HC

We are looking forward to seeing you all there to cheer on the clubs!