Ireland’s premier domestic hockey league looks set for a major overhaul in the coming seasons.
The Irish Hockey League (IHL) has just ended its third season, replacing the old end-of-season All-Ireland playoff format and bringing the country’s top teams into more regular battle throughout the campaign.
The IHL working group has released a proposal document which suggests a revamp of the tournament, reducing the number of competing teams from 12 to 10 while removing those clubs from their domestic leagues. Competing clubs would still be free to play in the Irish Senior Cup and domestic cup competitions.
Teams would play each other on a home and away basis, giving each 18 games a season — compared to between five and seven under the current, two-pool format — with the winners taking the first of Ireland’s European qualification spots.
The second European berth would be available via a finals weekend that would see the IHL and Irish Senior Cup winners play off against the top two to emerge from a preliminary round involving the ISC runners up and second, third and fourth-placed teams from the IHL.
The year one proposal for the composition of the league sees four Ulster, four Leinster and two Munster teams included in the men’s competition. The women’s league would comprise three from Ulster and Leinster, two from Munster and two wildcards.
It is also envisaged that regional representation would be maintained via a safety net guaranteeing at least one participant from each province, for the first couple of seasons at least.
The 10th-placed team would be automatically relegated to their provincial league, with the ninth-placed side entering a wildcard competition with the provincial winners. The top two teams here would qualify for the following season’s IHL.
As well as aiming to improve the standard of competition, the proposal aims to alleviate a problem within Irish hockey which sees players on IHL teams play 30-40 games a season — before interprovincial, international and schools commitments are factored in.
With just 30 competitive weekends available throughout the season — and with icy weather scratching off a couple of those in recent years — there are concerns over both the volume of hockey played and how much of is condensed into the back end of the season, particularly those who reach the business end of national competitions.
This season’s IHL winners and ISC semi-finalists Banbridge for example, played 35 games compared to the 22 played by their Ulster counterparts Mossley.
While it is envisaged that removing the top sides from provincial leagues would also result in more competitive provincial leagues, the situation is complicated by a proposal within Munster regarding reducing the domestic men’s league there to just four teams next term.
The southern province are likely to have the biggest fears over travel costs, too; a risk which is acknowledged by the IHL working group, along with the potential migration of players to IHL clubs and players dropping out due to an unwillingness or inability to commit to the increased travelling.
However, the working group maintains that “while there are risks, there are actions that can be taken to mitigate all of (these)”.
While no timeframe for implementation has been outlined, the group is inviting submissions from those within the spot before August, when it is intended to take a ‘roadshow’ approach to get feedback on the proposal from around the provinces. Submissions can be made via email to marketing@hockey.ie.
At least they have come up with something, but my first impression will be that it will ensure that the teams in the I.H.L. will get all the players wanting to play in the higher league and not in the home league. In Munster both the top two teams need to strengthen in depth, so the teams below are going to be weaker and so less attractive to play for. I would feel sorry for U.C.C. and the rest as they are sure to loose players.
maybe thiis will do the National team good, less league matches means the squad players can attend more training sessions with the national coach and play more International matches but I will be highly surprised to find that in real terms they play less hockey.
In the long term for Munster hockey this will not benefit it at all. Personally I would have increased the numbers playing in the I.H.L. and played home and away, that would mean 4 from Munster, get rid of all provincial cups. This woud mean four stronger teams in Munster but again I feel it would weaken the rest of the clubs in Munster but to me better four strong clubs than two very srong clubs.
many things wrong with this I know but I do not see a future for the game throughout Ireland if we go for the proposed format, never mind for Munster.
I wonder will Irish hockey ever look forward to what it’s actually trying to achieve my view is that all this does is further alienate our own grass roots hockey obviously there are differing needs in terms of mens and womens hockey! But we seem to have just adopted the English model here national league? What about the traditional player base or grass roots??? So we will now have 4 leinster teams, 4 ulster team and two munster, where is the benefit to your normal grass roots all this league will do is increase the gap between regional leagues and these national teams. Take interpros the player pathway will now be under question! If you come from the South East or Connacht and make an Irish underage team where is your development pathway if your from Munster your immediately limited in terms of selecting from only two clubs in the provence this to me does not seem like the right move! I believe a couple years ago this was a similar scenario with club rugby in the professional era and eventually the irfu moved towards a provincial approach! Why do we not adopt this philosophy empower the branch’s in Munster we could run two teams south and north munster allowing players from all across the provence to have an opportunity to play national league (increasing the player base) while allowing them to remain within their regional league structures and clubs it would also revitalise the branch in terms of prestige. I think before heading down the national league root we should choose carefully! Certainly the same approach could be adopted in dublin on a regional divide why not let south east and connacht enter teams as well as clubs outside of dublin and these teams could be run thorough the branchs
I can understand from the Irish set-up that they will want to concentrate the limited talent into a small number of teams who compete against each other regularly.. Hockey would receive a huge boost at all levels if either the men or women qualified for WC or Olympics.. current set-up isn’t working..
Can understand the club point of view – how the best players will leave for some of the IHL clubs but that already happens if someone wants to make an Irish team.. difficult one for the clubs… but also there’s a lot of meaningless games in Munster Leagues when the big sides take on the minnows already.. would it be more enjoyable to have competitive leagues for all clubs?
Alternatively would we be better off sending both men’s & women’s squads abroad to play professionally in Holland/Germany similar to soccer?
No easy answers on this – no perfect solution no matter what happens..
I think one word sums up from the ditch’s comments limited!! Why must we limit player clubs why not provide an avenue to allow the best players in munster to compete no matter what club they hail from!! Look at rugby its a perfect example of how not to do it, we need to expand our base allow players experience high level of hockey/coaching from all clubs so it can return to all clubs not just limited to two clubs! We cannot sustain an english model as single club’s its not feasible, instead of creating opportunities with fresh thinking we are going to limit Munster to only two options where does that leave players coach’s and young players all being pulled towards a single system! Dangerous times ahead for hockey, we have been following the national league for three years where are the indicators to show its impact!!
There are 10 teams in the top division in Ulster and Leinster. It looks like there are 4 senior teams in Munster next year. If before Christmas the leagues in Ulster and Leinster played each other once (draw for who gets 5 home games and who gets 4) and in Munster played each other twice (home and away). That is 9 and 8 games before Christmas – should be realistic.
Then after Christmas, the top 5 in Ulster and Leinster and the top 2 in Munster are divided into 3 groups of 4. They play home and away (6 games) and the top team goes through along with 1 best second place team. This leave 4 teams for the finals weekend.
At the same time the exact same happens for the bottom 5 teams in Ulster and Leinster and the bottom 2 in Munster. This would be a Plate competition.
That is a minimum of 14 league games in the year (which is close to what we have at the moment). This allows for all the current cup competitions to remain also.
As for other clubs, they play the regional leagues as per usual. In Leinster and Ulster, the team that finished last at Christmas is relegated and in Munster the bottom team plays a playoff.
I think this works for all clubs in Ireland of all levels but would be interested to hear other peoples thoughts.
Some interesting points made. I accept that people will always look at their own club situation but here are my observations.
Ireland are years behind. People make references to the IHA copying England. There are national leagues in just about every other hockey nation – France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Scotland…… so can’t understand that argument – we are our own enemies in this respect and people always looking for the perfect solution (which across three provinces is unlikely ever to exist). What ever proposal is derived is not going to please everyone but if you are to have a league you have to start somewhere.
I agree we want to expand the playing base in hockey. But at present we have clubs like Institute and Limerick who don’t even want to play in the Munster Division 1 because they would get hammered week in week out. This is no place to develop the game or youngsters coming into it. Surely is this league goes ahead more players/clubs will want to compete in our Division 1 and it will be a better development ground for our younger players/smaller clubs. If the IHL clubs play in the cups it is the perfect opportunity for the smaller clubs to play a one off game against teh big guns and gain experience playing against top players.
I actually think too many people in Munster look at Church and Quins and think they are up there….not as I see it. Look at how many IHL games they have won over the past few years. These teams have fallen right behind the other top teams in the country whereas 5-6 years ago they were up there in the top 3-4 teams nationwide. So look at the impact now. Too many young players are moving to Dublin in the search of better leagues/coaching/standard of play. I hear many of the youngsters are likely to follow in the footsteps of Lynch/Lynch/Pritchard/Bruton etc. Is this development? Quins are about two years away from falling apart as a club as all their excellent servants (Lombard/Lombard/Black/Black) will probably finish up soon enough. Where will they be then with only a premature junior section that whilst developing well now, will need several years before they are producing players able to make the step up to IHL. This then gives the other teams…UCC, Bandon the chance to make a play for IHL status.
I think the key focus therefore for Munster would be to back this plan BUT push hard for their to be a wildcard place so every year a 3rd Munster team can push for IHL status.