August 19, Dublin: Ahead of the EuroHockey Championship Qualifier B (Men), which will be held in the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin Thursday Aug 22 through Sunday Aug 25, Ireland Men’s Head Coach Mark Tumilty has named his 18-man squad.
Tumilty has made 7 changes to the squad that travelled to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Mark Ingram and James Milliken are the two options in goal, replacing David Harte and Jaime Carr. Luke Madeley returns following the injury that made him unavailable for Paris selection. Jonny Lynch and Ali Empey make the step up from the reserve list to the full squad for the competition and are also joined by twins Louis and Charlie Rowe, and Luke Witherow. Shane O’Donoghue has been bestowed the captain’s honours for the tournament in the absence of Sean Murray.
IRELAND MEN’S SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS: Mark Ingram, James Milliken
DEFENDERS: Shane O’Donoghue [captain], Kyle Marshall, Luke Witherow, Lee Cole, Luke Madeley, Tim Cross
MIDFIELDERS: Michael Robson, Peter Brown, Jonny Lynch, Daragh Walsh, Charlie Rowe
FORWARDS: Alistair Empey, Matthew Nelson, Ben Johnson, Ben Walker, Louis Rowe
The format of the EuroHockey Championship Qualifier B is a knockout competition featuring Ireland and 7 other nations; Wales, Italy, Poland, Czechia, Türkiye, Malta and Luxembourg. Each team will play a total of 3 games, beginning with a knockout game on Thursday, August 22. The winners will progress onto Saturday’s Semi-Finals, while the losers will play their first of two ranking games on Friday Aug 23. The final position of each side will be determined on Sunday, with all eight teams in action. The Final, taking place at 16:00 on Sunday, August 25 will be the main event of the day with the winner securing that coveted spot in the 2025 EuroHockey Championships in Monchengladbach.
The action gets underway on Thursday, August 22, 2024, at 11:00 when Wales (World Ranked #17) take on Luxembourg, who are taking part in their first senior competition in EuroHockey, so are unranked as a result.
Czechia (World Ranked #30) take on Türkiye (World Ranked #43) at 13:15 followed by Italy (World Ranked #27) and Poland (World Ranked #28) at 15:30. Ireland (World Ranked #9) play in the final game of Day 1 as they face Malta (World Ranked #72) at 17:45
Speaking at the announcement of the squad Head Coach Mark Tumilty said:
“There are a number of changes because of unavailability, but the new players will bring a freshness into the group. I am happy with this squad.
I always thought there would be changes from the Olympic squad. Mark Ingram has missed a lot of international hockey over the years due to work commitments, but he has an opportunity to shine at this tournament. James Milliken has earned his chance to be involved as back up to Mark. Luke Madeley has been very unfortunate with injury to miss out on the Olympics, but hopefully he can get in a full season with Three Rock Rovers in 2024/25, and he will be another option at penalty corners. Luke Witherow has trained extremely well over the past three months and was unlucky not to make the Paris games. We let Charlie and Louis Rowe concentrate on the Under 21 EuroHockey Championships in the latter part of the summer and are delighted to have them involved this week.”
On the year to date and looking forward to the tournament, Tumilty said:
“We’ve played a lot of games this year as the underdog, and the focus in those matches had to be on what we did without the ball. Our challenge this week is what we can do with the ball, and it begins with the game against Malta on Thursday night. Hopefully we will have enough to get through that and advance to the semi-final on Saturday.
No matter, who we end up against, were we to reach a semi-final, Italy or Poland will each present a challenge. We haven’t had it easy against Italy who will offer a significant challenge. They were unfortunate to be eliminated from the European B Championships in a shoot-out by Ukraine last summer in Dublin. And if anybody other than Wales qualify for the final it will be either Czechia or Türkiye. We played against Türkiye in Calais a few years ago and against Czechia in Dublin last year.
If the World Rankings are borne out by the results this week, the most likely candidate to be in the final is Wales, provided we get through the semi-final. Four of their players have been part of Great Britain squads this year. Three were at the Olympics in Paris and we played against their goalkeeper Toby Reynolds-Cotterill during the FIH Pro League in London. Wales beat us in a World Cup qualifier in 2021.
On the target for this week, Tumilty stated:
“We have to win this tournament in order to return to the European A Division Championship in 2025. We were relegated from that Division in 2019. The way the format is structured for the tournament is such, that if we qualify for 2025, we will also qualify to be in the A Championships that’s been awarded in 2027.”
On the Olympics:
“Reflecting back on Paris 2024 Olympic games, while I was satisfied with the performances and how we handled ourselves in those games, there was an opportunity to qualify for a quarter-final that wasn’t taken. This has to be viewed as a first step on the road to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Going forward:
“The next step is the big step. Breaking into the top eight nations in hockey. We’ve got to have aspirations to do that. Playing the top nations on a consistent basis helps develop teams faster. Being in the A Division is important in that process. Qualifying for the next FIH Pro League by winning a Nations Cup must be a goal too.”