As a hectic pre-season comes to a close, the high profile transfers keep coming with four women's internationals departing these shores to play hockey elsewhere.
Megan Frazer's scholarship to the University of Maryland was confirmed in the Spring but has been joined in wild geese camp by Shirley McCay (left), Alex Speers and Emma Clarke.
McCay and Speers have become part of the growing Ulster contingent at Dragons in Belgium - three Irish male internationals are already in residence - with Speers on target in a recent fixture against Leuven.
Emma Clarke, meanwhile, has joined English Premier side Leicester as her work takes her over to England.
In Leinster circles, Railway Union have picked up a trio of eye-catching signings in Holly Jenkinson (UCD), Zara Delany (Loreto) and Nikki Evans (Hermes) - all three being involved in Irish or Leinster panels in the past season.
Loreto have a ready-made replacement, though, with Ireland A panelist Nicci Daly moving from Glenanne.
Meanwhile, on the men's side, Pembroke Wanderers completed the transfer of nine-times Irish capped Adam Pritchard (right). The Cork C of I vice-captain makes the move to Serpentine Avenue following his acceptance to a course in Trinity College.
His defensive prowess will come in handy for the Serpentine Avenue club with Colin Kelly likely to be out for three months and Stu Loughrey moving to Loughborough.
* Full season preview detailing all the transfers to hand for the men's division one and two and women's division one will be released on Friday
19 comments:
wow any players left for the rest of the clubs in the country?
Do all these young players joining Pembroke think that they will make the Irish panel by playing their hockey in Pembroke?? I think so.
Pritchard playing for pembroke when he could play for trinity!!! foolish
Interesting on the Pritchard move, that it is likely he will now be selected into the Pembroke EHL squad. No fault of his to be fair, but has Fulton considered that other club players who have been training since August for the opportunity of selection for the EHL squad. Pritchard will be playing in the EHL within two weeks of joining the club. Big decision for the club. Fair or unfair??
Fair. best players at the club should make the squad regardless who has been training pre-season
Does anybody think that there should be some way encouraging players moving to the Leinster league to be distributed among the other teams? i.e. mid league div 1 teams. All in an aim to improve the overall standard of the league. Pembroke must have ~ 25 players capable of playing div 1 hockey, imagine the difference to the league if half of these players were playing elsewhere. Does anyone foresee the same situation occurring in Leinster as Munster? i.e. a 2 team div 1 league (CI & Quins) due to all the players with any ability joining these 2 clubs.
As a player I would also join the best club in Ireland with the best facilities but overall this is not the way forward for the game, short term gains for Pembroke in the EHL with bigger divides being created in the league.
so what's stopping clubs signing up players just to play in the EHL? say Jermyn or Watt? Play in the EHL and then go back to their original clubs once that happens?
I mean, look whats happened to those Pembroke lads who've been forced to move on, surely this is the greatest tragedy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPJ5tw3jZKU&feature=player_embedded#t=238
What's stopping clubs signing up players "just" for EHL is the fact that they then can't go back and play in the same season for their original club.
Assuming both clubs play in competitions that are used as national qualifiers for the EHL.
e.g. Provinicial League which qualifies for IHL or ISC which qualifies for EHL
They are essentially "cup-tied"!
And also couldn't play for any other European club that could also qualify for EHL in the same season.
Interesting to see if Pritchard now becomes a regular in the mens team since he is now under Fulton.
Hard on the player who will lose out for pembroke.
Speers will be a huge loss for Pegs who started to look a little tired last year with a somewhat small squad.
What possessed Nikki Daly to leave Glenanne where she was star of the show every week in a team that improved a huge amount throughout the season to Loreto where she will get a fraction of the playing time?
Railway must have a lot of attackers now with both Zara and Nikki Evans joining there. Competition for places will be very tough.
good call Bango. The lads are legends....
September 24, 2009 9:50 AM:
That's life i'm afraid.....if you are not good enough to play for a team it doesn't matter if you have been training all your life for it!
That video is classic, fair play lads
It seems that their is a strategy or vision to get as many international players playing together in support of the national goal. Good for Ireland but not good for hockey in Ireland.
In the drive to achieve at international level the rest of Irish hockey is left trailing in it's wake. In Munster there are 2 teams competing for Senior honours. In Leinster Div2 is falling apart with only 6 teams remaining, relatively no hockey in Connaught and a totally discontented Ulster Senior league bemoaning their lack of resources compared to Leinster Clubs. Surely someone can see that development of the game at grass roots is the only sustainable strategy for hockey in Ireland.
I agree with 10.15. There is alot of pressure on potential Ireland players to move to the "Big Clubs". This will result in there being a bigger gap between the top and the rest of the league! I think that only spells bad news for the game!
Post a Comment