David Harte backs arrival of ‘fantastic’ Mr Cox as Ireland national hockey coach

By Stephen Findlater

Irish skipper David Harte is confident new national coach Alexander Cox can hit the ground running just four months out from the World Cup.

The goalkeeper knows first-hand of Cox’s credentials. The Dutchman is Harte’s coach at club side at SV Kampong in the Netherlands where they have won three major titles in the last three seasons, ending a 30-year drought for the Utrecht-based club.

Harte admitted it was a pleasant “surprise” to be able to get someone of Cox’s reputation to take the reigns.

“With the vacancy Craig Fulton left, we are delighted to get someone of Alexander’s quality with his amount of international experience along with his achievements at the very top level of the club game in Europe,” Harte said.

“It is a bit of a surprise to get someone like him in at this stage. It is usually a four-year cycle when the coaching carousel suddenly does its rounds. We’re smack-bang in the middle of World Cup preparation with only a few months to go, which made it difficult to find someone of the quality we were looking for.

“We really didn’t want a rash, rush-job to patch over things. We have trust and belief in the players group that’s in place to take ourselves forwards but to have someone like Al to take the reins is fantastic.”

Harte describes Cox as “incredibly diligent” with a talent for unpicking the “finer details of opposition analysis”, adding that he tends to favour creating a player-led environment.

Cox has already stated his respect for this Irish team’s “no excuses” mentality and Harte says the coach has been able to galvanise their Kampong team through tough times.

Two seasons ago, they underwent a spell shy of several injured first teamers and they dropped into the lower half of the Dutch league at the mid-season winter break, only to storm back with an unbeaten run to win the competition.

Cox will also be quickly clued into the squad mentality of the Irish team.

Cox’s long-time assistant Kai de Jager has been working on and off with the Irish squad for the last 18 months and will easily be able to provide a crash-course on the setup he is coming into.

“With the guys on the ground that he has been with for the last few years, he can get the information quickly and then getting used to Hockey Ireland as a whole and the players and the selection process for December.

“Knowing his capabilities and qualities that he brings as a coach will not only bring and develop us further but keep us on track to hitting the goal of being a top eight team in the world. That’s something we are really looking forward to doing with him.”