Season 2012-13

Coach: Niall Denham

Manager: Eddie English ( eddieenglish@eircom.net / 086 2599384 )

Captain: Kenny Carroll (kencarroll20@hotmail.com)

Vice Captain: Rob Abbott (abbo_2000@hotmail.com)

Training
Men’s training will start as follows for the pre-season
Tuesday : 19:00 – 21:30 Fitness Training & Pitch
Thursday : 19:30 – 21:30 Fitness Training & Pitch

If you have any queries feel free to contact Eddie, or the Chairman of the club John Maguire.

1st XI Captain’s report season 2011 /12
The 2011/12 season was a “breakthrough” season for us. Our goals for the season were to qualify for the IHL and to win a trophy. We achieved both of these goals.
We won the Neville Cup on St. Stephen’s Day beating UCD 3-1. This was the Club’s first senior trophy in thirty years and the first time we have won the Neville Cup. We finished comfortably 4th place in the league on 33 points from 18 matches, winning 9, drawing 6, and losing three games. We had the highest goal difference of any team of +28 goals, scoring 67 which was the highest in the league and conceding 39. Peter English was the league’s leading scorer and Rob Abbott was in 3rd place in the goal scoring chart.
Our season went to the last day of the year with the Irish Senior Cup Final where we lost 4-3 to Cork Harlequins. We had beaten IHL Champions, Lisnagarvey 3-2 the previous day in the semi-final. The Irish Senior Cup will be a big target for this group of players in the coming years.

The key to our improvement this season and over the last two seasons has been the hard work consistently put in by the players. Ian O’Keeffe has been a great influence on everyone. Players are doing their own training in their own time now whether it be running, weights or out on the pitch. A love of hockey has also been developed a group of players have travelled two years in a row to Holland to watch the EHL finals. The way we play and our approach to hockey has been appreciated by the national coach, playing with a smile on our faces and playing with No Fear are traits we have displayed that are key to our success.

The season started with a pre-season trip to Bath University for a tournament. We did well beating the famous English Club, Havant, in one of our matches. Our performances and togetherness built up confidence and team spirit for the season ahead.

We want to host a pre-season tournament on the week-end 7th — 9th September in conjunction with the Ladies. Help from club volunteers will be needed in the hosting Of this tournament.

We have been invited to the top quality Cookstown tournament on the 31st August to 2’ September and we have accepted the invitation.

The 1st team squad and the whole Club in general need to learn the lessons from our progress and continue implementing and reinforcing them. Hard work, discipline, embracing training, quality coaching and keeping things simple are the key to progressing the club. Our goal for next year will be to establish ourselves as an IHL Club.

We need to keep recruiting players for all teams and all senior members need to help out with the youth section to make sure we keep developing our own players.
I would like to thank Ian O’Keeffe, Eddie English and Rob Abbot for all their work during the season.

First XI Coach – Ian O’Keeffe

The Men’s 1st XI have welcomed Ian O Keeffe as their coach.
After a period out of hockey, he is now keen to get back into the game. He brings with him a huge amount of playing and coaching experience and we are looking forward to successful times with Ian.
Ian has been involved with hockey for 30 years as a player / coach / manager. As a player he played for Belvedere, Cork Harlequins & Pembroke Wanderers, captaining both Harlequins & Pembroke. At Interpro level he played Schools, U21s & Senior and at International level he played Schools, U21s & Senior, playing in Europeans, Intercontinental Cup & Junior World Cup.
Ian has coached at both Senior & underage levels & has managed the Irish U21 team.

Fixtures & Results – Division 1