Mark Tumilty hopes Ireland’s men can match ‘culture’ of women's team

SoftCo and Hockey Ireland have agreed a new deal to become the main sponsor of both the Irish men’s and women’s national teams on an equal basis. At the sponsorship launch were Irish men’s hockey players Jamie Carr, Sean Murray, and Shane O’Donoghue. Picture: Inpho/Morgan Treacy

Building the same sort of team identity and togetherness as the national senior women’s hockey team is a priority for Ireland men’s head coach Mark Tumilty this season.

SoftCo, who have been sponsoring the Irish women’s team since just before their historic 2018 World Cup silver medal, have just announced they will also now sponsor the Irish senior men’s side.

To have the same sponsor for both national senior sides is rare in Irish sport and the men’s side have clearly benefitted from the women’s success.

SoftCo co-founder Susan Spence said: “We have had fantastic fun over the last four years with the women’s team and hopefully we can replicate that success.”

The senior men’s side have suffered a series of heart-breaking defeats and mass retirements since qualifying for the Olympics in 2016.

Their bid to repeat that ended in anger in 2019 due to a controversial refereeing decision to award Canada a last-minute penalty stroke. Ireland went on to lose the subsequent penalty shoot-out and missed the Tokyo Olympics.

Three months ago they failed to qualify for the 2023 World Cup by losing another penalty shoot-out, to Wales.

Just two players — Shane O’Donoghue and Conor Harte — from the 2016 Olympic squad played in Cardiff. David Harte is still involved but was injured at the time.

Tumilty said the new sponsorship, which also applies to development sides, will help him build more experience into a very transitional side.

He is also keen to foster the sort of indefatigable team spirit which has become the hallmark of the Irish women’s team’s success.

“They have a culture of togetherness and belonging that we need to work towards,” he said. “You definitely need a bit of luck as well which they’ve had but, when they’ve got momentum, they’ve gone with it.

“They’ve done a World Cup, an Olympics, and are now going to another World Cup. They’re at the top table and that’s the challenge to us, to get back there and stay there.” 

He said the men’s squad face different problems.

“The senior women run a centralised programme but we don’t. We have guys playing abroad and students in England. Last year we ran the programme on a regional basis, this year we’d hope to run it on a national basis.

“SoftCo’s sponsorship will enable us to be together more regularly but also create more background support and enable us to play more games.

“I firmly believe we need more of those, to get as many guys to 100 caps as soon as we can and more matches against higher ranked teams, to really challenge the players and see the level they need to get to.

“I’ve always said there’s a big difference between being selected for Ireland and playing for Ireland and I stand by that.”

Ireland men’s next focus is a Euro Hockey qualifier in Calais in August. Only the winner of their group will get back into Europe’s A division and France will be their toughest opponents.