Fight for indoor title gets underway

Indoor hockey returns this Sunday with a 13-game marathon at the National Basketball Arena with the chance to represent Ireland at the European Club Championships in 2010 the prize for the winning side.

The group phases take place this weekend, February 1, as the race to pick up the Tony Byrne title begins in earnest

The tournament this year will take place over the next two Sundays – February 8 sees the closing group games and the playoff stages – with the competition’s increased popularity boosting the number of entrants to ten with Kilkenny making a first appearance.

The Cats will be bolstered by Derek O’Gorman – the former Leinster centre-midfielder joining his former club for the duration of the competition as his outdoor club, Fingal, is not involved on the indoor circuit.

Kilkenny, enter a tough group with reigning national champs Three Rock Rovers one of the sides to watch. For this season, they add Venezuelan international Lucas Piccioli to last year’s squad. He impressed when lining out for Corinthian two seasons back and will bring his excellent close-control to bear.

His introduction, as well as the scramble for places in Rovers squad for the 2009 European championships, has left player-coach Liam Canning with an interesting dilemma.

The highly decorated indoor expert has a squad of 18 to choose from but has only 12 places on the flight to Cambrai and is considering whether he may be one of the players confined to a watching brief.

Corinthian, meanwhile, provides an unknown quantity with South African internationals Andrew Cronje and Darren Kimfley possible starters.

Glenanne, too, have been formidable in recent years reaching the semi-final stages last year but were edged out 6-5 by Monkstown. Dublin Uni complete the group.

Group 2 features regular contenders Railway Union under the tutelage of master of the boards Paul O’Brien. They have shown their intention to reclaim the main prize with an early season training weekend to Prague while Kevin King – a specific indoor coach from England – has been drafted in to man the sideline while Mick O’Connor guests once more on the field.

Monkstown, with Czech international Filip Jaros and coach Trevor Watkins at the helm, improved dramatically last year to be a real contenders too. They have Gavin O’Halloran included in their panel, on loan from UCD.

2007 champs Pembroke Wanderers cannot be written off while Trevor Dagg will hope to use his many successful years as an Avoca indoor player mould his young YM charges into a challenging side.

His former club round out what looks the slightly tougher of the groups.
Indoor hockey has undergone significant growth in the past few years, thanks in the main to the efforts of Paul O’Brien with a number of initiatives for getting youth sides involved inaugurated.

To this end, the IHA introduced a ‘Stepping Stones’ training courses in December to introduce people to indoor coaching – recognizing the importance the game can play in developing young players close skills and quick decision making.

Tony Byrne Cup - Group I
(10:10am) Kilkenny v Corinthian; (1:30pm) Dublin University v Kilkenny; (2:20pm) Three Rock Rovers v Corinthian; (4:50pm) Dublin University v Three Rock Rovers; (6:30pm) Glenanne v Dublin University; (7:20pm) Glenanne v Three Rock Rovers;

Group II
(9:20am) Railway Union v YMCA; (11am) Avoca v Railway Union; (11:50am) Avoca v Monkstown; (12:40pm) YMCA v Pembroke Wanderers; (3:10pm) Pembroke Wanderers v Railway Union; (4pm) Monkstown v YMCA; (5:40pm) Monkstown v Pembroke Wanderers