Irish eyes smiling as Bray’s Kavanagh drives on Australia

Bray-born Fergus Kavanagh could be one of the Ireland’s unofficial Olympic gold medallists.

Kavanagh helped Australia’s men’s hockey team blast aside world number five side Spain 5-0 yesterday in the Riverbank Arena.

He describes Ireland as his “traditional home” while 15 members of his family will make the short hop across the Irish Sea to support him next week in London.

Indeed, his brother, Tom, still harbours hopes of a potential call-up to the Irish panel since moving to Europe to live in the past couple of years.

“He’s quite a good player and when Ireland were trying to qualify for the Olympics [in March], he tried out for the national team about six months ago. It didn’t work out this time and Ireland were bloody close to qualifying for this tournament.

“It would have been great to have one Kavanagh playing for Australia and one for Ireland. That’s my parents’ dream.”

The family moved to Perth in the 1980s with Fergus’s father initially on a six-month contract. But this quickly became three years and permanent residency followed.

Back in Bray, his mother — along with a number of cousins — had played in the Loreto school while his grandmother represented Leinster, creating a direct affinity that sticks with him.

“I still consider Ireland my traditional home but we’ve moved over to Australia and I have great lifestyle over here.

“We follow every sport Ireland play so I’m keeping a keen eye on how they do at the Olympics.”

As for his adopted nation’s hopes of gold, he is not counting chickens just yet, despite two big wins — hammering South Africa 6-0 on day one — in a competition which has seen most rivals stutter in the early phases.

“We’ve had two good results. Sometimes the scoreline can be a bit flattering. Spain had a few chances early on which would have changed the game but we played really well.”

The Spanish loss was further compounded by an injury to 34-year-old Pol Amat, who was found to have dislocated his shoulder, keeping him out for up to three weeks.

The result left Australia in pole position in Pool A after two rounds of matches in their six-team group. The playoffs get underway on August 9.

Yesterday also saw Britain draw 2-2 against South Africa.