Ireland confirmed as EIGHTH in the new world rankings out this morning, moving up eight spots up to their highest spot since rankings were introduced!
#HWC2018
Ayeisha McFerran - goalkeeper of the tournament! Not much argument with that - she also received several votes for the player of the tournament but that goes to Lidewij Welten
#HWC2018
Canvassed a few different Whatsapp groups with people from around the hockey world - not a single one yet to make a case for a stroke. Just heartbreaking and inexplicable...
Very significant and brave announcement from Peter Caruth on his Instagram page a moment ago.
You can read more about his decision to come out publicly here:
Attendance record for a women's international sporting event, 6,086! Previous record for Irish women's rugby game vs England in the Six Nations earlier this year at same stadium!
Probably not the best time to point this out but the video umpire last night, according to TMS, was doing his first men's international Video Umpire game (second in total). With the best will in world, you would hope
@FIH_Hockey
would have experienced heads in the roles
- 1⃣2⃣3⃣ caps as a player
- 8⃣ Irish Senior 🏆
- 4⃣ All-Ireland Club Champs/IHL titles
- Over 8⃣ years as manager, assistant-coach and more with
@IreWomenHockey
- World Cup 🥈
A guaranteed future Hall of Famer
Dorothea Findlater (The Hook's granny) passed away this morning at the ripe age of 107 and 329 days after an amazing life. The funeral is Thursday (November 23) at 11 o'clock in St. Brigid's Parish Church, Stillorgan
via
@IrishTimes
Some great news from
@daveyharte
this morning following results of CT scan; injury not as bad first feared - no fracture to his fibula. He will be out for a minimum of seven more days but, all going well, should be back for World Cup.
Full piece in Examiner tomorrow
Final score:
@IreWomenHockey
2 (C Watkins, R Upton)
@GBHockey
1 (L Unsworth)
Significant win! Shirley McCay said before she had never beaten GB in a friendly or otherwise so this is definitely a notable showing despite being uncapped! Sweet that it was televised into bargain
Two goals from Deirdre Duke and one each from Nikki Evans and Anna O'Flanagan saw Ireland win 4-1 against Spain this morning in an uncapped match. Check out the Irish goals!
Ireland’s shoot-out queens guaranteed a very first women’s appearance at the Olympic Games as Ayeisha McFerran added to her place in hockey folklore with three vital saves when all looked lost.
On the whistle report from the Indo
Final score:
@IreMenHockey
5 (O'Donoghue 2, Murray 2, Cargo) Canada 3 (Johnston, Pereira, Wallace) - at half-time in the contest, a good lead to take into Sunday. Ireland punished Canadian indiscipline; body language and attacking intent a world away from the Euros!
Seismic shift for
@IreWomenHockey
announced this morning as Park Developments announced as new sponsor. They rolled out a four-year package with bursaries for 23-players, supplementing Sport Ireland and Sport NI funds, to allow players go closer to full-time
Bit weird to see the winner of the
#RTESportsAwards
is the scorer of one goal in two wins in 2017 gets 21% vote when a World Goalkeeper of the Year David Harte and the incredible Con O'Callaghan can't even make the shortlist... and a world champion only gets 8%
#rewardmediocrity
Very sad news; Nikki Dignam has passed awayr. An outstanding player, she lifted the EuroHockey Cup Winners Trophy with Loreto in 2003 in Vienna and was instrumental in the rise of Wicklow in recent years as well as playing for the Irish Masters.
Irish Hockey owes a huge debt of gratitude to Nigel Ringland for pushing the sport's agenda with BBC NI; without having that advocacy - allied to extensive knowledge - in such a big media outlet, this tournament would have had nowhere near the reach.
Amid the euphoria, Johnny Watterson has an important article on the funding realities this Irish women's team is operating, showing how incredible their success is!...
Women’s Hockey World Cup
Ireland 0 Netherlands 6 (L Welten, K Jonker, K van Male, M Pheninckx, M Keetels, C van Maasakker) - the Dutch too good today but this has been a life-changing competition for these players! Heroes and legends all!
#HWC2018
The benefits of that new world ranking are massive; it means if
@IreWomenHockey
get through World Series tournament next spring, they would get a home Olympic qualifier match-up barring some miracle!
#HWC2018
One of the driving forces of the last 15/20 years, Ronan Gormley has formally retired from Ireland today. Not just a sensational player, few have done more off the pitch to raise standards to achieve Olympic and top 10 hockey!
Ireland win 3-2 and finish fifth, equaling best place in Euros; three wins, one draw and one defeat shows small margin between top four and bottom four for Ireland
So, you might be able to tell both Sarah Hawkshaw and Katie Mullan played a bit of GAA to a decent level! Fun goal from
@IreWomenHockey
's 3-3 draw today!
Devastated to hear of the passing of Ken Treacy, a friend of The Hook and a stalwart of Pembroke's incredible team of the 2000s.
A brilliant player and a brilliant person.
Final score:
@IreWomenHockey
1 (Upton)
@GBHockey
1 (Petter) - series shared, same wins, draws, losses, goal scored etc
Probably should have won that but how and ever, very upbeat series all round
I don't think this has been done for any major Irish team sport before but is probably the aspiration of where everyone wants to get to: the exact same level of support for both genders!
SoftCo &
@irishhockey
are delighted to announce SoftCo as main sponsor of both the men’s and women’s national teams on an equal basis. SoftCo will become the main sponsor of the men’s senior and development programs.
@IreMenHockey
#TeamSoftCo
Read more:
The Irish Women's Over-35s took silver from the Masters World Cup; they were undone in the final 2-1 by England with Yvonne Rogers getting the goal. What a performance from them this week in Nottingham
A week, three Irish jouranlists were in the press room for the game vs England; now, we are being doled out spots in the press stand as its set to be too full!
#bandwagon
“The video umpire should hang his head in shame.” Captain Jonathan Bell’s summation will be echoed around the Irish hockey world as a farcical video review decision with one second to go denied his side a place at the 2020 Olympic Games.
Good news -
@RTEsport
is now a position now to show the
@IreWomenHockey
World Cup games against Chile and Germany on the RTE News Channel!
Saturday's game vs the Netherlands will be
@btsport
's ESPN channel which is also available on
@NOWTV_It
Coverage of the
@irishhockey
🇮🇪 WC matches v Chile 🇨🇱 & Germany 🇩🇪 on July 5th/6th will be carried on the RTE News channel. All subsequent match coverage on
@RTEsport
will be subject to confirmation after the group phase.
#COYGIG
#canseecanbe
Historic moment for
@RailwayUnionHC
as they beat Austria's WAC 3-1 (J Long, L Lloyd, S Patton), guaranteeing a top two spot at the Trophy and promotion!
It will end a 30-year gap for
@irishhockey
to play in the top tier (Randalstown, 1994)!
Another sad loss as my journalistic colleague and friend John Flack (
@FLACKEROOS
) has passed away.
He travelled the world covering
@irishhockey
, his stories from the 1990 men's World Cup in Pakistan are the stuff of legend.
Billy Pollock tribute here:
Rd6 - Woodcroft beaten by the buzzer and Ireland have the guaranteed Olympic spot! Video again as Canada make a last ditch effort to get something... oh the memories
Another cool feature of the Jacqui Potter Cup final saw 18-year-old Christina Coulter Reilly umpire her first final of this level in front of a big crowd. In the performance, she showed few nerves in giving a stroke 70 seconds from full-time.
Another amazing piece of history for Craig Fulton last Sunday as he signed off his coaching tenure with Racing Club de Bruxelles with their first Belgian title in 81 years!!
Ireland’s women earned European indoor promotion at the first attempt after they romped over the line in Bratislava, earning them a silver medal from the third tier of continental competition with two big wins on Sunday.
One of the unsung heroes, her 2017 WL3 heroics played a massive part in kick-starting the
@IreWomenHockey
odyssey and a fairly incredible personal journey. Strong and perfectly pitched words.
Wow, one hell of an appointment for the Irish men. If he can get what he has got from
@KampongHockey
out of the
@IreMenHockey
, it would be incredible!
Brilliant news: The popular sports media brand Off The Ball has teamed up with Irish ParaHockey ID as its new sponsor. This partnership will see the Irish ParaHockey ID team wearing Off The Ball sponsored shirts at the next 2 European events.
Today is the day our man, Ian Robert Stewart, makes his Full International Debut. A massive day for his family, his friends, the team at ScoreIan HQ, and for Ian himself. We’re going to try to shed some light on why today will be such an emotional and special day below 1/X
Two late goals from
@AnnaOF
saw the
@IreWomenHockey
win game three of their series in Spain 2-0!
Two wins out of three so far; rest day tomorrow and then game four on Friday
Huge news; the
@IrelandMasters
Over-35 women have qualified for the World Cup Final following the 1-1 draw between the US and the Netherlands with a group game to spare! They play the Dutch tomorrow and then the final on Sunday!
Lovely moment yesterday as
@leinsterhockey1
Life Member Percy Henchy received a guard of honour after he umpired his last match yesterday between Clontarf and Avoca. He has been an official for over 50 years... contd
13' YAAAS! What a goal!
@shaneod16
scores his 93rd goal and it is a peach, Murray slips the pass, O'Donoghue flips it up chest high and volleys it in! 1-1. That equals the Irish goalscoring record!!
#HWC2018
Full time: Ireland 0 England 1 (Ansley), England dominated to be fair but McFerran was immaculate in goal and the corner defensive unit also put in a mass of big blocks; Italy or India next on Thursday
#HWC2018
The mini Hook thrilled to meet
@Ayeeishaa
today! He has been loving her work since jumping on the World Cup bandwagon in 2018 and can't wait for
#Tokyo2020