From Down Under, Irish women’s hockey can only look up

IT MIGHT seem a little Irish to suggest that a complete whitewash in hockey’s women’s World Cup in Perth represents a point from which women’s hockey in this country can build. But that is exactly how everyone involved in the sport, from the players to the administrators, are now looking at the experience.

The Irish women went to Australia for this 16-nation competition rated 14th and with realistic ambitions of coming out with an improved ranking. But after seven successive defeats they now have to fight for their lives against Ukraine tomorrow morning. A win would ensure a fifteenth place finish at worst, and guaranteed qualification for the Olympic games in Athens in 2004.

The chastening thing for the Irish, however, was that despite an unprecedented level of preparation for Perth, their best has so far not been good enough.

They have found themselves swamped at the top end of the scale by opposition who are, effectively, full-time players; and at the other end, by an inability to ride their luck in any coherent way against people they should be beating.

They have effectively snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on two occasions, performed heroically against vastly superior opposition on two others and pressed the self-destruct button on two others, including yesterday's 6-0 humiliation at the hands of South Africa.

But while all involved in the effort down under, including a couple of hundred travelling fans, are all deeply disappointed by the results, the focus is now on the hope that the Irish team can secure that vital Olympic spot.

According to Pauline Corrigan, a member of the Hockey Association's international committee, the main disappointment has been that despite all the money and effort spent preparing the squad for this tournament, we are still several levels below full-time outfits such as Holland, Australia, Japan and others.

The irony of the single goal defeat to hosts and favourites Australia is not lost on anyone, but the shock of a six- goal beating by the South Africans a team they had genuine hopes of beating is painful.

"The tournament has certainly not lived up to our expectations," Corrigan says. "But we know that the players have given everything to their preparations and have not been found wanting. We will have to look at what went wrong and examine how we can go forward. We have to look on the bright side despite the disappointment and see how we can take the game forward.

"This has been an eye-opener, especially as we thought we had done everything so well beforehand, but obviously the gap between us and some of the teams out there has grown. But we can't look at it as being all bad, we have to look forward and we have to beat the Ukrainians.

"From what I have seen, Rachel Kohler, as the captain, has been taking a very mature view and has not blamed the conditions or anything else. She and the players are accepting responsibility for what has happened on the pitch and that's good. That sort of attitude can only help.

"We did expect a lot better and how realistic that was, only time will tell, but we can build from this experience and hopefully we will," she said.

The President of the Munster Branch of the Hockey Association, Pat Dawson, said there was widespread and deep disappointment over the team's performance, particularly as it performed so well apart from the two drubbings and one or two silly mistakes which cost them games.

But he reckoned the challenge highlighted by the Australian adventure, was not simply to make sure the women beat the Ukraine and guarantee Olympic qualification, but more for the sport as a whole to promote itself and to shrug off old and misguided perceptions.

"This has certainly been a learning curve, albeit a very steep one, and everyone involved in the sport has been backing the girls all the way. But the lack of television coverage, for example, is symptomatic of the malaise which affects hockey.

"All we have seen on television here is a couple of minutes on the News and most of that was the bad stuff. There are 30,000 people involved in hockey in this country and yet the common perception of the game is that it is played only by Protestants and women. This is patently not the case and we have to work hard to persuade sponsors and television companies of that fact."

Dawson, like many in the game is very frustrated by this state of affairs and says the fact the Irish team in Australia is completely unsponsored, apart from welcome grant aid from the Sports Council and the Olympic Council of Ireland, but he says a lot of work has to be done to rectify this.

"Hopefully the girls will secure Olympic qualification and then we have the European championships to look forward to for both the men and the women, but we have to turn things around and secure proper sponsorship and proper television exposure."