Muller’s plan ‘would reduce IHL to a farce’

ONE of Irish hockey’s most influential coaches has added his voice to the growing dissatisfaction within the sport with Ireland senior women’s coach Gene Muller’s plans to base the national squad in Dublin on a full-time basis.

London native Mick McKinnon, who guided Armagh to six successive promotions before masterminding Railway Union’s first Leinster league title win in 100 years last term, says he is firmly opposed to Muller’s plan to centralise 20 or so athletes in the run-up to the 2011 European Championships.

A top-four finish at that tournament would secure automatic Olympic qualification, and Muller has been busy negotiating with players from Munster and Ulster about potential moves to Dublin, though no policy has yet to be officially put into place.

McKinnon is a former Irish Hockey Association (IHA) employee, having worked as the national body’s first coach development manager from January 2007 to September 2008, as well as spending six years in charge of the Ireland U18 girls side.

However, he argues that Muller’s centralisation plan could have ruinous consequences for club hockey.

“Centralisation basically further diminishes club hockey, which I already suspected was viewed with low regard by Irish Hockey,” he said.

“This would be fine if the IHA’s junior age groups were responsible for developing these players, but as someone who has been involved in these, (I believe) they do not. They merely enhance the talent the clubs produce.

“Most clubs’ ambitions are to win the Irish Hockey League (IHL) or Irish Senior Cup (ISC), and not to produce players for the national team – that is merely an off-shoot.

“It is no good saying that the players can still play for their home teams; training nine times a week in Dublin and playing in Ballymoney or Cork is not a viable option. Also, it is ridiculous to say that players who don’t centralise won’t be prejudiced against.”

McKinnon added that while his Dublin-based Railway side could potentially benefit from an influx of players to the city, he said he’d be against such moves, as they would reduce the IHL to “a farce”. In a week which saw Basketball Ireland wind up both its men’s and women’s national teams due to a financial crisis, both McKinnon and Belfast Harlequins coach Paddy Grimes have questioned the wisdom and expense of a centralisation plan for Irish hockey in the current climate.

“If centralisation is the way forward,” said McKinnon, “why centralise to the most expensive place to live in Ireland? I would like to stress that this is not an Irish hockey rant. I have been very supportive of Irish hockey in the past and intend to be so in the future.

“There are a lot of good people working for the organisation as both employees and volunteers, but this policy would disenfranchise a number of the volunteers in the provinces. If you take away clubs’ ambitions, you take away the enthusiasm of many of the volunteers who have produced the players that they currently want to centralise.”

Grimes described the plan as “a massive monetary investment” that he doesn’t believe is needed.

“Irish Hockey is, in my opinion, on a crash course to disaster. People must get a reality check and have some realism about where our game is at, and where we can get to in manageable time frames.”