Hockey - EY Hockey League 2016-2017 Season Gets Underway This Saturday
The second season of the EY Hockey League gets under way this Saturday, September 24th, and will see no fewer than 11 Olympians take to pitches around the country along with a plethora of capped international players from Ireland, France, USA, Canada, South Africa and Germany to name just a few.
The EY Hockey League is Ireland’s premier hockey competition which sees 10 men’s and 10 women’s team competing over 18 rounds. Speaking about the start of the upcoming EYHL season Mike McKerr, Country Managing Partner, EY Ireland commented:
“EY is delighted to sponsor the second season of the EY Hockey League where we will see the best teams from all over Ireland playing in 18 rounds of the highest quality hockey throughout the year. At EY, we are committed to building the highest performing diverse teams. Hockey is an equal sport where both men and women can compete at the same level and we are committed to strengthening gender equality.
On behalf of EY, I would like to wish all the teams competing in the EY Hockey League every success in the upcoming 2016/2017 season. I would also like to thank you, the supporters, for your continued backing of these tremendously hard working teams. Your support is an invaluable source of motivation for players, coaches, officials and volunteers who give up so much of their time to bring you a top quality and entertaining competition”.
EYHL Men’s Preview 2016/2017 Season
Hot on the heels of a first Olympic summer for the Irish men’s team in over a century, the EY Hockey League provides a major showcase for new fans of the sport to see the Rio stars up close and personal.
The second season of the all-Ireland competition begins with a bang this weekend with a double-weekend, a full series of matches for each team on both Saturday and Sunday in the race to be named Ireland’s best club.
Lisnagarvey are the reigning champions following a breathtaking run last season, losing just once in 18 regular season games before seeing off both Pembroke and Banbridge in the end of season EY Champions Trophy playoffs.
As such, they will be the side that everyone will target. They have retained the majority of last season’s panel bar Michael Watt who has moved to English club Hampstead and Westminster for this season.
Otherwise, they can look to Olympians Jonny Bell, Paul Gleghorne and Timmy Cockram along with rising international stars like Sean Murray, James Lorimer and Neal Glassey while they have added Irish Under-18 captain Peter McKibbin from Annadale.
Coach Erroll Lutton is in his fourth year with the team and the aim for the season is to “replicate the consistency we showed last season and be amongst the contenders for the EYHL and the Irish Senior Cup”.
As national champions, they also have a Euro Hockey League (EHL) adventure to look forward to next Easter when they will play in the last 16 of the world’s premier club hockey competition.
Banbridge, as last season’s runners-up, will also play in the EHL. They become the first Irish club to host the competition when Round 1 comes to Havelock Park from October 7th to 9th.
Their Olympian is Eugene Magee, the second most capped player in Irish history while Matthew Bell and Drew Carlisle are two other current internationals to look out for. They will, however, miss Stevie Dowds who moves to London. Coming the other way, former Bann striker Dane Ward returns to the club from England to lend his skills to their attack.
Leading the Dublin charge, Monkstown will be hoping to become national league champions following success in 2013, 2014 and 2015 along with last term’s Irish Senior Cup.
Peter Caruth has moved back to his home club of Annadale to work as a player-coach with the Ulster Premier club while Jonny Bruton switches to Corinthian in Leinster Division 1 to be an assistant-coach along with playing.
Town’s David Fitzgerald and Kyle Good were both in Rio at the Olympics in a team packed with international caps. With Jason Lynch moving from Pembroke, they now have eight Irish internationals in total.
Munster’s leading lights Cork C of I made the early running last season and will be aiming to get off to a similarly strong start this season. John Jermyn – Ireland’s all-time top goalscorer – takes on the captaincy after a very impressive last 12 months.
Neil Welch takes over as coach and he has Wesley Brownlow, Andrew Power and Ken Twomey adding to his squad.
Looking forward to the season, manager Barry Crowley said: “The team should have a more settled look this year and are hoping to push themselves into the top half of the table and are also looking for a good cup run. The experience of last season’s competition will stand to a lot of their younger players and they are hoping to hit the ground running in the first weekend of the season.”
Mitch Darling and Shane O’Donoghue add to the attractions, returning from Rotterdam and Antwerp, respectively, to play for their hometown clubs Three Rock Rovers and Glenanne.
For both Dublin clubs, they will hope the new arrivals can provide the impetus to push them toward the playoffs. For Rovers, they were in the top four for the majority of the last campaign before just missing out on the top four in the closing weeks.
With a young panel, they struggled in front of goal but will hope that Darling’s arrival along with Clontarf’s Kevin Mullins – who became the first player in the north Dublin club’s history to score over 30 times in a season – will add to their firepower along with Shane Madeley from UCD. They start off with a pair of games on the road, travelling to Banbridge on Saturday before facing UCD on Sunday.
For Glenanne, O’Donoghue can provide a similar boon. The Tallaght side will miss the scoring prowess of South African Shannon Boucher but the returnee is a much more than adequate replacement having scored at over a goal every two games on the international stage including three goals at the Olympics.
They will hope Leo Micklem can step into the goalkeeping pads vacated by Polish star Lukasz Domachowski who has returned home after a couple of seasons in St Mark’s. The arrival of Richard Couse is another boost from Avoca.
The Glens were fifth in the league last season but will hope to move up a rank this term. They start with key games against Dublin rivals Railway Union on Saturday before meeting Banbridge on Sunday.
Railway, for their part, have added 10 players to their wider squad with Peter Catchpole from Cork and Australian Kieran Springett the key new players while James Dick has moved back to Tasmania.
Pembroke’s squad has been trimmed with Cork quintet Karl and Jason Lynch (both Monkstown), Scott Sullivan (USA), Adam Pritchard (retired) and Nick Burns all moving on. They do have Mossie Elliott back from a spell in Beligum, however.
Instonians and UCD were both promoted last year, the Ulster side taking the short route via the playoffs while the students saw off Cookstown in an all-or-nothing showdown.
UCD have a tough ask on their hands to avoid the relegation places but have retained the services of James Duncan and added YMCA duo Aaron Bailey and Ben Campbell from the Leinster league.
Inst, meanwhile, have grown their squad considerably with Zach McLelland looking the pick of the bunch.
Men’s EY Hockey League, fixtures
Saturday: Railway Union v Glenanne, 2.15pm, Park Avenue; Monkstown v Cork C of I, 2.30pm, Merrion Fleet Arena; Banbridge v Three Rock Rovers, 2.45pm, Havelock Park; Lisnagarvey v UCD, 3pm, Comber Road; Pembroke v Instonians, 4pm, Serpentine Avenue
Sunday: Instonians v Monkstown, 1.30pm, Shawsbridge; Railway Union v Lisnagarvey, 2.15pm, Park Avenue; Cork C of I v Pembroke, 2.30pm, Garryduff; Glenanne v Banbridge, 3pm, Glenanne Park; UCD v Three Rock Rovers, 4pm, Belfield
EYHL Women’s Preview 2016/2017 Season
A new season and a new entity could potentially lead the way in the second edition of the women’s EY Hockey League as reigning champions Hermes have amalgamated with Monkstown during the summer.
The new conjoined club goes into the new season as the clear favourites following a dominant 2015/16 campaign for Hermes, winning the regular season title last year by 12 clear points before taking the EY Champions Trophy with playoff wins over Ulster Elks and Pegasus.
Their attacking triangle of Chloe Watkins, Anna O’Flanagan and Nikki Evans for 63 goals last term as they blitzed the field. International team mate Naomi Carroll has moved on to Cork Harlequins in one of the moves of the summer but there is a glut of young stars like Ellen Curran, Suzie Kelly and Amber Barnwell with an extra year’s experience under their belt to improve their lot further.
Pegasus – last year’s finalists – are looking to close the gap. They will do so with a new coach as last season’s assistant coach Alison McNeill takes on the main role following Arlene Boyles’ decision to step down and focus on her coaching role in the Irish senior women’s set-up.
The Ulster side’s main signing is Michelle Harvey after three seasons playing with KHC Leuven in Belgium. She starts the season with an ankle injury but could make an impact as time goes on. Robyn Chambers returns to the club after a year with Ulster Elks, bringing Dawn Axon with her while Katy McKee – from Lurgan – is another good addition.
Leah Paul moves the other way, joining a much changed Elks side who will have a completely new look to their line-up this season. Last term, they won the Irish Senior Cup title for the second successive year but their side will be almost unrecognisable from those vintages.
Long-term coach Ricky Lee has been replaced by Davy Menaul in the hot seat. Out go Kirstie Lammey, Danielle Wilson, Lyn Brown, Axon and Jessica McMaster along with the key trio of internationals Gemma Frazer (Belfast Harlequins), Rebecca Barry (Cork Harlequins) and Irish captain Megan Frazer who is playing with Mannheimer in Germany.
Incoming are 10 newcomers. French international Andrea Desneaux returns to the club to add a cosmpolitan flavour with Megan Rogers from the US and Danni Wilson from South Africa joining Canadian powerhouse Anna Kozniuk.
Young stars like Emma Quinn and Leah Paul add to their mix which Menaul will be looking to mesh together quickly ahead of a season-opener against their local rivals Pegasus on Saturday before hosting a Cork Harlequins filled with new talent.
Indeed, the Cork side – the last remaining Munster side in the competition – have been the most active in the summer swaps. In addition to Irish players like Carroll and Barry, Roisin Upton will arrive at Farmer’s Cross during the season when she completes her college commitments with the UConn Huskies where she won an NCAA title.
Former German international Lina Geyer is another big addition with over 100 caps to her name. Stephen Dale coaches the side for a seventh season while manager Robert O’Sullivan has been in situ for eight years and the latter says the side will be looking to have a greater sense of consistency this season after a mixed bag last time around.
“While on any given day, Quins were a match for most teams last season, their lack of consistency & squad depth would ultimately count against them. However, this looks to have been addressed during the off season with some key additions,” he said of the new panel.
They look set to be battling it out for a playoff place in what could be a titanic tussle. Railway reached last year’s EY Champions Trophy with a third place finish. Anna-May Whelan is their marquee signing following her Irish senior debut in the summer while UHC Hamburg’s Maja Heiden could also prove a big addition.
On the coaching front, head coach Colm Blennerhassett has brought in the goalscoring expertise of Jean McDonnell as a specialist coach while Jody Hosking is his new assistant to give plenty of know-how to a side packed with young talent. They have seven Leinster Under-18 panelists while 17-year-old Niamh Carey has been brought into the Irish Under-21 selection.
Newly promoted Loreto will be looking not just to consolidate a position in the league but to also make an impact. They arrive in the national league with an array of top talent with all 18 of their front-line panel having played for Ireland at some level, be it senior or underage.
They will miss Lena Tice who has picked up an elite scholarship with UCD but the likes of Ali Meeke, Lizzie Colvin, Hannah Matthews and Hayley Mulcahy along with the experience of Louisa Healy and Nikki McConnell mean they can cause plenty of problems.
In addition to Tice, UCD have kept five of their senior internationals while Emma Russell – following a successful stint in the US with Syracuse – is back in Ireland after four years. The departures of Emily Beatty, Kate Lloyd (both to Belgium) and Elaine Carey (USA) will be keenly felt.
At Pembroke, Elun Hack is the new coach in charge and has 10 new players at his disposal to cope with the retirements of Sarah Clarke and Natalie Fulton while goalkeeper Stella Davis is replaced by Tiffaney Ellis.
Ards will be hoping for a less nervy end to their season this time around after a brief flirtation with the relegation playoff position before eventually prevailing. Chloe Brown, with 14 goals to her name, was their key player.
Belfast Harlequins, meanwhile, complete the table following their dramatic win over UCC to secure their place in the top tier. Gemma Frazer is a huge addition to their squad having captained Ulster Elks to Senior Cup glory and will look to get the likes of Jenna Watt firing in front of goal.
Season openers do not come much bigger than Hermes-Monkstown but it will give them an early taste of the challenges that lie ahead.
Women’s EY Hockey League
Saturday: UCD v Ards, 2.50pm, Belfield; Loreto v Cork Harlequins, 1.30pm, Beaufort; Pembroke v Railway Union, 2pm, Serpentine Avenue; Belfast Harlequins v Hermes-Monkstown, 2.30pm, Deramore Park; Ulster Elks v Pegasus, 2.30pm, Jordanstown
Sunday: UCD v Loreto, 2pm, Belfield; Ulster Elks v Cork Harlequins, 1pm, Jordanstown; Ards v Hermes-Monkstown, 1.30pm, Londonderry Park; Pegasus v Pembroke, 2.30pm, Queen’s; Railway Union v Belfast Harlequins, 4.15pm, Park Avenue