Ireland U18 boys will tackle Europe’s best in Holland next month without a single Munster player in tow, after head coach Turloch O’Siocháin named his 18-strong panel for the newly-monikered Volvo EuroHockey U18 Championships today.
The news is not entirely surprising given the southern province’s woes at the U18 interpros, allied to the strength in depth of this year’s crop and the absence of Munster’s stand-out talent Nick Burns, who is sidelined by Leaving Cert commitments.
Nick Burns: Ireland U18 forward misses out on Europeans due to exam commitments. Picture: Adrian Boehm
Ireland’s U18 player of the year Ian Sloan — the fulcrum of Cookstown’s Irish Senior Cup win — skippers the side, and is one of six players who were involved in last summer’s heroic Four Nations victory in Cork.
Banbridge’s Owen Magee brings the calmness of a player who slotted the winning penalty shuttle in his side’s maiden Irish Hockey League victory, while Kirk Shimmins has played in the EuroHockey League — the summit of world club hockey — with Pembroke Wanderers.
Illustrating the talent at Ó Siocháin’s disposal is the fact that David McCrea — another involved last year — and Bann prodigy Josh Moffett must be content with places among the non-travelling reserves.
Ireland have been drawn in Pool B alongside Germany, the Netherlands and Russia for the tournament, which takes place in Utrecht from July 12-17.
IRELAND U18 Boys squad for Volvo EuroHockey U18 Championships, Utrecht, Holland (July 12-17): M Ingram (GK, Railway Union/Oatlands College), B McMillan (GK, Mossley/RBAI); M Bell (Banbridge/Banbridge Academy), P Brown (Banbridge/Banbridge Academy), R Canning (TRR/St Columba’s), D Cole (Monkstown/St Andrew’s), J Duncan (Railway Union/Kilkenny College), A Fallis (Lisnagarvey/RBAI), N Gilmore (Banbridge/Portadown College), O Magee (Banbridge/Banbridge Academy), P Ritchie (Annadale/Regent House), M Rollins (Cookstown/Cookstown High), T Samuel (TRR/Wesley), K Shimmins (Pembroke Wanderers/Wesley), I Sloan (Cookstown/Cookstown HS, capt), H Spain (Suttonians/Sutton Park), D Watkins (Monkstown/St Andrew’s), J Wright (Portadown/Portadown College). Non-travelling reserves: M Anderson (GK, Banbridge/Banbridge Academy). S Gallagher (GK, Avoca/Newpark), F Maher (Railway Union/St Andrew’s), D McCrea (TRR/Wesley), J Moffett (Banbridge/Banbridge Academy).
Post Author:
alangood
7 Replies to “U18s to tackle Europe minus Munster men”
A sure sign of the times for Munster hockey (mens) & the future is really bleak.
Its a shame Nick is not on the squad, he is a force to be reckoned with and is a great loss to the squad, I think one of the main problems was that Nick could not attend training due to his leaving but also the fact that the national training sessions were held in Banbridge – Nick could not afford to lose so much time in this his exam year, watch this space because Nick will be back and back with a vengenge – best of luck in your leaving Nick
I think Leinster hockey fan above is missing the point.Whether Nick Burns is there or not isnt the issue.The issue is that there are no Munster players on the Irish U18 team and this does not look bright for the future of the game in Munster.There’s no doubt that the standard of hockey has declined in Munster in recent years and the lack of competitive games doesn’t help either.Something needs to be done fairly soon along the lines of an IHL league to improve the standard in Munster.If not we wont have any Munster Irish senior players either.
From the perspective of a Munster under 18 player: ye complain about how bad we are when ye do nothing to support us, nobody wanted to coach us and in fairness to Ivan and Phil they took the job with only a few weeks to go before the tournament. Leinster and Ulster started training in June and were training from then on, it annoys me that ye come on this and complain about us when ye did nothing to help us. how do you expect us to compete with them when we’re not given anywhere near the same amount of resources?
Well said Richard, a provincial team isn’t made up of just the players. A whole array of off and on the pitch support is needed. Where Ulster and Leinster are given what ever they need to excel, be that physio support, more training dates, whatever! Munster can barley come up with a coach and manager. Come on like, if we’re going to do something, we may as well do it properly.
And on a side note I think its ridiculous that the majority of trials for the irish team are held in the north. When I was in the trials process for the u16 team (which lasted 6 months) I lost count of how many times I had to make the trip to belfast, and on top of that when you get up there you’re fatigued from the journey so you dont perform as well as you can, then you had to stay somewhere for the night, and travel home the next day, taking up the whole weekend. Not to mention that all this adds up and becomes extremely expensive. This and many other factors make it incredibly hard for munster players to compete with the rest of the country.
So instead of writing articles on how badly munster players are representing us on a regional and international standard, why not try and come up with ways of making it a little easier for us to compete with the rest of the country.
thanks, good point to I am more concerned about the interpros not the irish sessions, I wonder if there is any sign of coaches for either teams yet? In my opinion we need to start the selection process straight away
One bright light on the horizon… the branch are setting up U16 development panels for the boys, starting from 11/12 yr olds up… Will be the start of replicating the structures in Lein/Uls who have development panels from U12 up.. so the younger kids will get additional sessions over the next few years to help gear them towards future U16s interpros …. Problem as always will be in getting volunteers – either in taking those dev sessions or to cover those coaches in their home clubs as they may not be able to cover both club & Mun dev duties.
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A sure sign of the times for Munster hockey (mens) & the future is really bleak.
Its a shame Nick is not on the squad, he is a force to be reckoned with and is a great loss to the squad, I think one of the main problems was that Nick could not attend training due to his leaving but also the fact that the national training sessions were held in Banbridge – Nick could not afford to lose so much time in this his exam year, watch this space because Nick will be back and back with a vengenge – best of luck in your leaving Nick
I think Leinster hockey fan above is missing the point.Whether Nick Burns is there or not isnt the issue.The issue is that there are no Munster players on the Irish U18 team and this does not look bright for the future of the game in Munster.There’s no doubt that the standard of hockey has declined in Munster in recent years and the lack of competitive games doesn’t help either.Something needs to be done fairly soon along the lines of an IHL league to improve the standard in Munster.If not we wont have any Munster Irish senior players either.
From the perspective of a Munster under 18 player: ye complain about how bad we are when ye do nothing to support us, nobody wanted to coach us and in fairness to Ivan and Phil they took the job with only a few weeks to go before the tournament. Leinster and Ulster started training in June and were training from then on, it annoys me that ye come on this and complain about us when ye did nothing to help us. how do you expect us to compete with them when we’re not given anywhere near the same amount of resources?
Well said Richard, a provincial team isn’t made up of just the players. A whole array of off and on the pitch support is needed. Where Ulster and Leinster are given what ever they need to excel, be that physio support, more training dates, whatever! Munster can barley come up with a coach and manager. Come on like, if we’re going to do something, we may as well do it properly.
And on a side note I think its ridiculous that the majority of trials for the irish team are held in the north. When I was in the trials process for the u16 team (which lasted 6 months) I lost count of how many times I had to make the trip to belfast, and on top of that when you get up there you’re fatigued from the journey so you dont perform as well as you can, then you had to stay somewhere for the night, and travel home the next day, taking up the whole weekend. Not to mention that all this adds up and becomes extremely expensive. This and many other factors make it incredibly hard for munster players to compete with the rest of the country.
So instead of writing articles on how badly munster players are representing us on a regional and international standard, why not try and come up with ways of making it a little easier for us to compete with the rest of the country.
thanks, good point to I am more concerned about the interpros not the irish sessions, I wonder if there is any sign of coaches for either teams yet? In my opinion we need to start the selection process straight away
One bright light on the horizon… the branch are setting up U16 development panels for the boys, starting from 11/12 yr olds up… Will be the start of replicating the structures in Lein/Uls who have development panels from U12 up.. so the younger kids will get additional sessions over the next few years to help gear them towards future U16s interpros …. Problem as always will be in getting volunteers – either in taking those dev sessions or to cover those coaches in their home clubs as they may not be able to cover both club & Mun dev duties.