Thursday, January 8, 2009

News in brief

* Three Rock Ladies coach Niall Denham has been named as the boss for the 2009 Leinster men's U-21 side. Denham has previously been involved with Leinster schoolboy sides and will take charge for the tournament which takes place on February 13 to 15.

Elsewhere, former Cork C of I man, Jason Lynch has been made himself available for Ulster's U-21 initial panel for the interprovincials despite playing for Munster in the same event last year, with Munster's coaching co-ordinator John Hobbs expressing his disappointment at the decision.

* Tom Goode has been appointed by the European Hockey Federation officiate at the EuroHockey Indoor Club Champions Cup (Men) in Rüsselsheim (GER) on the same dates, February 13-15. Goode will be the neutral umpire at the continent's top indoor club competition.

Geoff Conn, meanwhile, will travel to Prague for the second tier of indoor club competition to umpire.

* Former Dublin University, Genesis and Leinster U-21 coach Gilles van Hesteren has been named as the assistant coach for Croatia's men's national team. Since leaving Ireland, the 29-year-old has been one of the head coaching co-ordinators in Amsterdam hockey club's youth section.

* Glenanne's annual married versus singles game, played on Christmas day, raised in excess of €3,000. In near perfect conditions, the game ended 2-2 at full time with Jason Kehoe and Karl Crosby scoring for the singles while Brendan Carr and Nasir Munir were on target for the married team, who subsequently took the win on strokes.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Prizes to guess who the U21 captain will be? Clue M.D

Anonymous said...

Irish and Senior Interpro players aren't elligable to play U21 I believe, unless we're talkign about different M.Ds

Anonymous said...

are we talking about mitch denham here??

Anonymous said...

Sad to see john mac inroy do it this year, him and mike o connor did a good job.....seems a nit disorganised this year tho

Anonymous said...

so does anybody know what the selection process is?
as in are there trials or...?

Stephen Findlater said...

From the info I've had so far, clubs have been contacted about putting forward potential players. As regards trials and training and so on, it will be a very difficult task.

The tournament is on the same weekend Three Rock travel to Europe for the indoor and the previous two Sundays are indoor weekends.

There also remains quite a few back matches and the IHL weekend so negotiating all these issues is quite some task.

In a similar manner to last year's senior interprovincials, such events generate lots of public interest but its becoming more and more difficult to give the tournaments major precedence in the hockey calendar.

Anonymous said...

I thought the rules for international availability had changed this year to include interpro tournaments? Anyway it wouldnt be a shock if he did get captaincy as he had it last year.

Anonymous said...

Internationals are available for U21's and Senior Inter-pro's.

Anonymous said...

Who is Niall Denham ? ? Did you put his photo up Stevie to help us...

Thanks cause i thought he was 'Cheesy'

Anonymous said...

fair play to Glenanne for raising that money. Great work!!!!

Anonymous said...

He is Cheesy too but not in such a refined or eloquent manner as Queso or Fromage... he still has a lot to learn!!.... young padoin :-)

Anonymous said...

nial denham, he has no experience of working with underage, not sure about this choice.

Anonymous said...

thats a bit of mad comment saying he has no experience with underage. he's worked with wesley, columba's and three rock youth sections for years now as well as doing a few senior first teams.

he's also been involved with leinster underage sides.

Anonymous said...

no disrespect to Niall but surely they would pick a top player or fromer top player for this job, otherwise a proven top coach, Niall appears to be neither of these (no offence intended) he previously worked with an u18 side im aware of however this was in an assistant role. what do people think?

Anonymous said...

why just pick a top player? what guarantee is that of a decent coach?

why not pick a young, irish, ambitious coach who has done his coaching grades... give them a chance.

also, from what I hear, a few people pulled out of doing the job at a late stage

Anonymous said...

Lets give the guy a chance to prove himself..

He will have a very talented squad looking at the current talent , so it would be difficult not too success.. ( No pressure then )

The key question is what can he teach the likes of Darley and co and what are they willing to listen to from 'inexperienced' coach...?

Anonymous said...

Nialler has a lot of experience... he knows players such as mitch as he has coached them at younger levels! he has also coached andy mcconnell. Im sure he will be sucessful. he is the right man for the job.

Anonymous said...

A top player always makes a top class coach/ manager; just look at Staunton and Keane.

Fergie was the best player in the UK until he hung up his boots......

Anonymous said...

His is a clip board coach.. what is the highest level he has played or coached at ! ? There are more talented coaches in the country but no one has the time commitment to make themselves available..

Anonymous said...

give him a chance! The only way hes going to become experienced at this level is to get jobs like these. Hes probably already worked with most of the current squad available at some point in time so surely thats an advantage?
Hes enthusiastic and will put alot of work in to do the best he can with what should be a talented squad.
Sure didnt they have a 'top player' coaching them last year and look at what that got them...nothing!!

Anonymous said...

for u21 could it be a case players will be picked from performances in their respected matches due to the busy hockey schedual this month???
just a thought

Anonymous said...

niall denham is the coach to bring leinster youth hockey forward

Anonymous said...

Nialer, prove them wrong for being so negative, even up front. Not too many of them did go over to Holland to coach. You did. No reason to be the 'nice guy': there is a job to do ! Good luck. H