Dublin, November 22: Ireland Senior Men’s Head Coach Mark Tumilty has today announced his 20-player squad to travel to Argentina in December for the first stage of Ireland’s 2024/25 FIH Pro League Campaign.
The competition, dubbed ‘The League of the Best’, unites the world’s finest men’s and women’s international hockey teams in a prestigious global competition. The league format will see Ireland compete in four stages across different countries, beginning in Argentina from Dec 11-16, and continuing to India in February 2025, and the Netherlands and Belgium in June 2025.
In the upcoming stage Ireland will play England in their opening game on December 12, followed by Argentina on December 13. The team will then play a repeat of these fixtures, playing England again on December 15, and Argentina on December 16. All four games will be played at 00:30 Irish Time in the Santiago del Estero Hockey Club.
The 2024/25 FIH Pro League will be Ireland’s second time competing in the competition in as many years. The team came 9th overall in the 2023/24 competition, resulting in relegation but were invited to return to the league when New Zealand opted to decline to take up their spot. Despite relegation, Ireland’s performances in their inaugural Pro League drew much attention, as they demonstrated their ability to go toe-to-toe with the World’s top sides. The highlight of the first campaign was a duo of victories over current World no. 4 Belgium, in Antwerp.
Speaking after the squad announcement Head Coach Mark Tumilty said:
“When we entered the Pro League last year we went on a bit of a journey into the unknown to an extent. But we learned quickly during the India stage what the challenges would be.
There’s an element of the unknown facing England and Argentina during this part of the Pro League because both teams appointed new coaches since we last played them. The systems they played before will be modified to some extent by their new coaches. That’s another interesting challenge and one we are looking forward to.
It’s a nice time to restart the program. It gives us early purpose to our program after Paris and will be beneficial to the group.”
Speaking about the team’s expectations, Tumilty stated:
“We need to be more clinical when we have possession, and we’ve got to be better at holding on to the ball. We’ve got to be better at building better phases of play and spending more time in the opposition half. We need more positive results in this second go at the Pro League. We had the two results against Belgium and lost narrowly to India, but we also suffered some heavy defeats. The experience gained at the FIH Pro League gave the players the knowledge of what is required to take on the top 8 nations in the world at hockey. We’ve a lot of work to do to get into the top 10 and remain there.”
Tumilty’s side for Argentina blends together a mix of youth and experience, with several uncapped players among those selected including Banbridge Goalkeeper Luke Roleston, YMCA’s Adam Walker, and Three Rock Rovers’ Ben Pasley. The team will also include the experience of cap centurions Darragh Walsh, Ben Walker and Lee Cole, and will be captained by Kyle Marshall in the absence of Sean Murray.
Speaking about the squad selection itself, Tumilty said:
“We’ve various guys missing through work commitments and others through injuries and those would be the main reasons for their absences from this squad. But I also think even if everyone had been available, we would still have given our younger players an opportunity in this phase.”
Ireland Men Squad – FIH Pro League, Argentina
Luke Roleston (GK)
James Milliken (GK)
Kyle Marshall (C)
Peter McKibbin
Mark McNellis
Fergus Gibson
Tim Cross
Lee Cole
Adam Walker
Peter Brown
Jonny Lynch
Daragh Walsh
Nick Page
Luke Witherow
Ben Pasley
Ali Empey
Ben Walker
Conor Empey
Ben Nelson
Louis Rowe