Hockey’s Mark Tumilty names squad for upcoming Belgium FIH Pro League fixtures

Ireland Men’s Head Coach Mark Tumilty has announced an 22 strong squad to play in the FIH Pro League being hosted in Belgium. The squad will depart for Antwerp on Friday May 17th.

This is the third round of games in the 2024 FIH Pro League after the two rounds in India in Bubhaneshwar and Rorkela, India in February. The fourth and final round of matches will be hosted in London in early June.

Their first game of this round of the FIH Pro League will be on Wednesday May 22nd when Ireland take on the hosts Belgium in Antwerp which pushes back at 18:00 Irish Time. The second game for Ireland takes place the following day Thursday May 23rd when Ireland take on Argentina in Antwerp which pushes back at 15:30 Irish time. The third game takes place on Saturday May 25th when Ireland play their second game against Argentina in Antwerp beginning at 17:30 Irish time. The fourth and final game of this round takes place on Sunday May 26th when we take on Belgium for the second time with a push back of 15:15 Irish time.

 

Squad Announced:

Jaime Carr (GK)
Mark Ingram (GK)
Shane O’Donoghue
Mark McNellis
Kyle Marshall
Luke Madeley
Lee Cole
Peter McKibbin
Daragh Walsh
Nick Page
Tim Cross
Jonny Lynch
Sean Murray
Peter Brown
Michael Robson
Johnny McKee
Ben Walker
Ben Johnson
Ali Empey
Matty Nelson
Jeremy Duncan
Louis Rowe

FIH PRO LEAGUE ANTWERP SERIES

 

WEDNESDAY MAY 22ND 2024

IRELAND V  BELGIUM – 18:00 IRISH TIME

THURSDAY MAY 23RD 2024

IRELAND V  ARGENTINA – 15:30 IRISH TIME

SATURDAY MAY 25TH 2024

ARGENTINA V IRELAND – 17:30 IRISH TIME

SUNDAY MAY 26TH 2024

BELGIUM V IRELAND – 15:15 IRISH TIME

 

Speaking ahead of the Antwerp series, Ireland Men’s Head Coach Mark Tumilty said:

“We need to focus on ourselves in these eight games (4 in Antwerp and 4 in London) and we need to be better in possession of the ball.”

“We need to learn lessons from the series of games we played in India. In our last match against India, we created a lot of chances that we failed to convert. They were more ruthless converting their chances and ran out4-0 winners. We need to be more ruthless in the opposition semi-circle.”

“We played Argentina recently in a friendly series we won 3-0in one, lost 8-1 in another and drew the third. The positives were we were competitive in two of the three matches and must continue to be competitive if we are to get a result in those games.”

“Playing against Belgium in their home venue is always a tough ask. Those games against Belgium present a different challenge as they are the one team in the world playing zonal Hockey. Learning to cope with that system will be important in this series but also in Paris in a few weeks’ time.”