Club players get chance to shine as awards format changed
In announcing the shortlists for the fourth annual awards, to be held at Dublin’s Burlington Hotel on May 23, the Irish Hockey Association revealed a change in the structure of some of the top awards.
Two new categories have been introduced this year, with the men’s and women’s senior player of the year awards split into two parts.
While the core members of the Irish senior squad will vote on the senior player of the year, a new award — the senior club player of the year — is open to all other players plying their trade in the top tiers in each province.
Jonny Bruton, Cork C of I, Three Rock’s Neil Lyons, Monkstown’s prolific hitman Gareth Watkins and Cookstown skipper Ian Hutchinson will vie for the men’s club player of the year award.
Jean McDonnell and Emma Smyth are predictably in the shake-up for the women’s equivalent after spearheading Railway Union’s charge to a first Leinster title in 100 years.
They are joined by Hermes’ mercurial young forward Anna O’Flanagan and Susie Martin of Ballymoney.
The boys’ U-18 player of the year will be a finely balanced decision, with David Carson, Kyle Good, Shane O’Donoghue and Stephen Cole all having exceptional seasons.
Catholic Institute’s Naomi Carroll has a firm claim on the girls’ equivalent, along with fellow superstars-in-waiting Chloe Watkins, Niamh Atcheler and Dora Gorman.
Mary Logue is in the shake-up to win coach of the year having masterminded UCD’s shock Irish Senior Cup win, as is Pembroke Wanderers’ Craig Fulton, who goes in search of his fourth trophy this season in the Irish Hockey League semi-finals this weekend.
Pembroke are also a strong bet for club of the year, as their first-team success has been replicated down the ranks.
Geoff Conn’s candidacy for umpire of the year was strengthened by his good performances in the EuroHockey League, while Carol Metchette went one better by officiating at the Beijing Olympics.
The conveyor belts of talent at Bandon and Cork C of I have been rewarded with youth club of the year nominations, while the Munster hockey community will also be championing the cause of Cork Harlequins’ Finbarr Kelleher — a superb servant to the game in the committee room and on the pitch — for volunteer of the year.
Meanwhile, a motion calling for the removal of clubs’ second-string teams from the top tiers of Munster hockey will be a hotly-debated issue at the AGM of the Munster Branch of the Irish Hockey Association (MBIHA) at Garryduff tonight (7.30pm).
Six clubs are co-proposing the motion, which has been implemented twice in the past 20 years, only to be scrapped after a season or two. However, the clubs are this time calling for the proposal to be implemented until the 2013/14 season at least, seemingly in the hope of encouraging second-team players at the dominant clubs of Cork Harlequins and Cork Church of Ireland to move to other clubs to result in a better spread of talent.
But the motion is likely to be met with strong opposition from the top two, who could argue that they should not be punished for producing good players and that such a measure would compromise their ambitions on the national stage.
