Irish team ready to turn the tide

The Irish men’s hockey team are quietly confident they can regain their status among Europ’s elite at this week’s European nations Cup in Rome. Ace goalscorer Stephen Butler tells Declan Colley why.

WHEN Ireland fell into Europe’s ‘B’ ranked hockey nations after a dismal display at the ‘A’ grade championships in Barcelona two years ago, a cloud of introspection fell over the game here.

Ireland were downgraded and, despite having one of our strongest ever squads, few saw a way back unless drastic steps were taken. Radical changes within the Irish Hockey Association (IHA) in the wake of that defeat, and the appointment of Dave Passmore as the men’s team coach and high performance director for the sport as a whole, have given the game new impetus.

It is with this background that the Irish men travelled to Rome this week for the European Nations Championships as one of the favourites to regain their former status, and if they achieve that goal, numerous other opportunities will open up.

Stephen Butler, for one, thinks they can do it.

“I think we’re pretty confident at the moment,” the Dubliner says.

“We’ve had a good preparation - in fact with Dave being on board, we’ve had a massive preparation - so we’re pretty confident going out to Rome.

“We know there are a lot of expectations going with us, but the thing is that if you’re playing in the ‘A’ Division, then you’re up against stronger opposition, but we’re trying to get back into the A Division and the expectation is that we will win, so the pressure is on.”

Even so, Butler reckons that Ireland’s new coach has made all the difference to the team.

“Having Dave in as coach is exactly what the players wanted and while he demands a lot of us, he has brought a lot of freshness into what we do and we needed that. From what we had before, it is all new and hopefully we can implement what he has been teaching us.

“All his coaching techniques are new to us and that has been good because the overall standard of coaching in Ireland has been fairly poor, so to have a high performance coach like Dave has been brilliant.

“Basically it had come to the point that if a good coach had not been appointed, then a lot of the players would have stopped playing. A lot of people were becoming quite frustrated because we knew we had a lot of talent, but we had no coach to push us through. That was certainly the way I felt about my hockey.”

The coaching issue was one of the reasons Butler (and several other Irish players) went to Belgium for three years. He has no doubt it made them better players. Hopefully, he says, now that the team has a good international coach, the Irish team as a whole can improve as well.

“It will be massive for Ireland if we do well in the Europeans and make it to the World Cup qualifiers and I think it will be much better for me to be here in Ireland if that happens. With Dave here now, I’m happy to be back.”

Another potential advantage from doing well in Rome is the possibility that an Olympic qualifier could be held in Dublin if the Irish make the grade. Butler says that while the players know they have to do their bit, the IHA will then have to play their part to persuade the international authorities that Dublin would be a suitable venue for such a tournament.

“If they can pull that off, it would have a huge impact on hockey in Ireland. We saw from the crowds which attended the recent European Ladies’ Championships in Dublin that the potential is certainly there and we could build on the success of that if we were to succeed in getting an Olympic qualifier,” he says.

Butler’s goal-scoring prowess - he is now the most successful Irish player ever in this regard with a total of 45 international goals - is a matter of accident rather than design, but he says that his prowess as a drag flick specialist from set pieces just happens to be something he can do well.

“I’ve put in a lot of work with Colin Giles, who is a specialist drag flick coach, and it has really improved my technique.”

A tally of five goals in the recent friendlies against Italy in Rome - Ireland’s last warm-up games before the tournament - underlines his point and illustrates Butler’s importance to the Irish side.

But the Dubliner is keen to credit other people for his improvement as a player in recent years. In fact, his time in Belgium, spent with fellow Irish internationals Justin Sherriff, Graham Shaw and Joe Brennan, saw much progress made by each player.

“The Dutch coach we had at Dragons, Bert Wentik, saw something in the Irish guys there - a sort of natural aggression and a will to win - but he got us to play with a lot more structure and I think that helped us a lot.”

From an overall point of view, Butler thinks that Ireland have finally got over the lethargy which seemed to overcome them when it came to major tournaments. There was a time, he says, when Ireland could win all round them in pre-tournament games, but then fell apart when it came to the serious competition. That is, hopefully, a thing of the past.

Having drawn with Italy in the first of their most recent encounters, Ireland then fell behind 3-0 in the second, before finally prevailing 5-4. That, Butler says, is a huge sign that Ireland has turned the corner.

“In the past, we might have focused too much on the one game we knew we had to win and didn’t just take it match-by-match. In these championships, we will probably play Italy in a semi-final or final and that will be a key game, but right now we are intent on taking it one game at a time.

“Also, I don’t think we have ever been as well organised as we are going into this tournament. We are as well-prepared as we can be, so it is just up to us now to go out and do the job. We’re quietly confident we can do that.”