AS IRISH HOCKEY continues to ride the crest of its magical World Cup wave, Alexander Cox — the recently-installed men’s head coach — hopes his side can take inspiration from the women’s team when they embark on their own tournament odyssey next month.
For only the third occasion, and first time since 1990, Ireland will compete on the global stage when the Men’s Hockey World Cup gets underway in India, with the Green Machine set to open their campaign against defending champions Australia on 30 November.
Cox, who took over from long-serving Craig Fulton in the summer, yesterday unveiled his initial 20-man squad for the tournament, with the Dutchman due to confirm his final 18 players and two travelling reserves in the coming weeks.
Currently ranked 10th in the world, Ireland have targeted progression from Pool B, as they face England and China in their other group games at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, with a quarter-final berth well within their reach.
While Cox admits emulating the feat of the women’s national team by reaching the World Cup final is ‘almost impossible’, he says they can certainly take huge confidence from the way Graham Shaw’s history-makers defied the odds and achieved their dreams in London.
“First of all my target is to play the game how we want to play the game,” he said in Dublin yesterday. “That means that we defend well as a team, that we can play some good counter-attack hockey as well and that we can have a good structure on the ball.
“Those were the three things that we focused on in the last couple of weeks, especially our defensive structures and our counter-attacks.
“If you set goals, we want to reach the quarter-finals and from there on we’ll see. To reach the quarter-finals, we need to finish first in our pool or finish second or third and then win the crossover and that’s going to be a massive task but I think we’re able to.”
In the wake of Ireland’s success in London, coupled with the men’s national team qualifying for the Rio Olympics, expectations within the public sphere have shifted for Irish hockey.
While only in the job a number of months, Cox recognises the potential for his side to continue that progressive growth both on and off the field with strong performances in India, but says there is no added pressure on them to perform above their capability.
“Maybe when the tournament starts, people will compare it [the Women's World Cup] but I think we need to be reasonable and you can’t compare the two tournaments with each other,” he continued.
“It also difficult to compare the men’s and women’s hockey. In this competition in India maybe seven or eight teams can become world champion. Therefore the competition is massive. What we can learn from the women is that you can dream big and that’s what we are also trying to do. We’re going to dream big and see what happens.”
Having finished 12th in each of their last two World Cup appearances, in 1978 and 1990, Ireland are under no illusions of the size of the task ahead, with Australia currently ranked number one in the world while England are seventh.
The second pool game against China, ranked 17th and making their debut appearance at the tournament, will be targeted by Ireland as they bid to advance through to the quarter-finals.
Although the departure of Fulton, who had guided Ireland to such success during his tenure, was an untimely setback for the national team ahead of the World Cup, Cox certainly brings experience and pedigree to the position.
Currently the coach of Dutch outfit SV Kampong, the 40-year-old has held previous posts as the assistant coach to the Netherlands men’s and women’s team, helping the latter to Olympic gold at London 2012.
“It’s a big challenge,” he said of taking on the role. “The main reason was I like the Irish way of hockey and I like the mentality and the willingness of the team.
“When I was coaching with the Dutch I always enjoyed watching the Irish. I always said to myself there were some countries that I would love to coach and the Irish were one of them.
They go out there to win games and they go out there to give it their all. That’s something that should be normal but I said it to the guys a couple of times in the last weeks, it’s not always normal in sports and people are always willing to work hard but these guys in this team give it their all.
Ireland’s preparations for the World Cup will continue in Spain next week when they play in a four-nations tournament, before they face further challenge matches against Belgium and Netherlands ahead of their departure for India.
Cox has named 10 of the players involved in Ireland’s Rio Olympics campaign in his panel, with as many as 14 currently playing professional hockey in Belgium, Germany, Netherlands or England.
Indeed, there is an exciting blend of youth and experience as the likes of David and Conor Harte, Shane O’Donoghue, Paul Gleghorne and Kirk Shimmins are set to play an integral role in the side, while Daragh Walsh, Lee Cole and Luke Madeley are among those who inject youth into the ranks.
Two-time world goalkeeper of the year David Harte is expected to captain the side again, and Cox knows how important he’ll be during the tournament.
“He’s massively important,” the head coach, whose short-term contract with Hockey Ireland is only until January, added.
“He’s a world class player, I think he’s the best goalkeeper in the world. His experience at international and club level is massive and the opposition is, let’s say, afraid of him.
“He is really important for our team and our way of playing. First of all we need to defend well. That’s our main task also at the World Cup, and when you have a great goalkeeper that helps.”
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