Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Railway and UCD to raise curtain on New Year

Following two weeks of weather-based postponements, Leinster hockey in 2010 finally gets underway tonight as Railway Union host UCD in the Jacqui Potter Cup at 7.30pm in Park Avenue. It is one of six cup ties outstanding from December 20 as both sides bid to join Hermes and Pembroke in the quarter-finals of the competition.

Glenanne have refixed their tie with Bray for Sunday, January 17.

* As there is quite a high volume of matches to be refrixed, if you have any more information on when they will be played, please mail me at stevie_findlats@yahoo.com

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

IJC + Indoors same day?

Anonymous said...

Ladies indoor qualifier and Leinster Div 2 full schedule.
Anybody who knows anything about indoor knows that some Div 2 outdoor players are better indoor players than div 1 outdoor.
By doing this the branch has basically said that the indoor competition is exclusively for Div 1 players which is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

absolutely

Anonymous said...

It was great to see indoor getting a look in again after many years - as usual the branch did not engage their brain cells!! Indoor is a very different game to outdoor and I agree with 1.11pm comments

Come on Leinster Ladies Branch - give indoor a chance!!

Anonymous said...

the railway v ucd cup match is in railway this evening at 7.45 and not 7.30 - hard to call who will win, due to the long lay off, but both teams are due to play ISC semi finals on sat:

Pegagus v Railway
UCD v Loreto

Anonymous said...

while i agree that indoor needs to be given a chance and that its not just for div 1 players in fairness to the branch/iha they have very little options when it comes to fixtures. with all the refixes and deadlines they need to get games played asap or we will end up with the same mess as last year.

Anonymous said...

maybe by planning a winter break they could avoid all this

Anonymous said...

The IHA look after the Irish Junior Cup and the Indoor League !!! Nothing to do with the Leinster Ladies Branch.....

On another note the IJC has been moved to the 30th January!! Division 2 players should be happy now!!

Anonymous said...

It's always the same this time of the year. A very small group of indoor fans think indoor is the most important thing in life.

Get real!

Anonymous said...

We are not indoor fans, we are clubs trying to put out the best team for every competition that we are entered for. Unfortunately with the fixtures this can now not happen.

Anonymous said...

10.35
You have obviously never played indoor before or when you did you were one of those up right giraffes trying to hit everything up the pitch with the long handle.

Anonymous said...

10.35am - i think the point is that the indoor rarely gets a fair crack of the whip from IHA/Branch administrators.

Any outdoor cancellations, as have happened extensively over the winter months in the last two years, and it is the first to suffer when it it the only format that can actually be played.

It's a route into Europe, too, and the increase in clubs playing this year shows that there is some kind of interest.

Anonymous said...

it's also great for fitness and skills training when the pitches are frozen!!!!!! There was a Tueday night league many years ago and all level of players participated, fun had by all

Anonymous said...

Sure... clubs showing interest in indoor hockey.

If clubs realy had the ambition to play a decent indoor competition, there would have been one.

You can't blame the IHA or the branches for not giving indoor hockey a fair chance if maybe 25 players in Ireland want to play indoor. Apparently the rest wants to focus on the outdoor league, get a ticket into Europe.

Anonymous said...

Think indoor would be a great way of getting more schools involved especially primary schools as the school just needs a hall and some sticks. Even with 5 schools a viable league could be created. Could also work at secondary but think it's better to concentrate on primary level.

Anonymous said...

Dont be rediculous. Neither the branch or the IHA should postpone any league as a matter of course for indoor.

Indoor is only relevant to the teams playing in it. Therefore the only cancellations should apply to those teams, which should be applied for on a case by case basis.

True there should be a winter break. But not because of Indoor. Winter break should be because outdoor is not possible. (then indoor can be played), but only by teams who choose to enter. It is not compulsory.

'Anybody who knows anything about indoor knows that some Div 2 outdoor players are better indoor players than div 1 outdoor.
By doing this the branch has basically said that the indoor competition is exclusively for Div 1 players which is ridiculous.'

To suggest that the branch are only favouring teams in Div 1 is farcical. Avoca ladies are in Div 3 and they have successfully applied for a postponement of their league game because they are playing indoor. And fair play to them.

Why should whole leagues be upset? If 2 teams are not entering indoor and can play their match then they play

Im sure the majority of your 'Div 2' team are not playing on your clubs indoor side. There may be a few but lets be realistic.

The branch have openly said that they will offer a postponement to any club entering the indoor as long as their are solid grounds

Anonymous said...

Interesting comment from the Ulster blog:

Have to agree with some extent to the comments above regarding indoor, although keep it behind closed doors until we actually learn how to play ot!!
Whilst we will get the same excuses rolled out by the branch re: " but it can snow from Nov through to March and "this is a one off" etc it really doesnt take in to account the lack of quality that we suffer from in the harshest month of January. It is not as black and white as saying " well its OK the pitch isnt frozen". It may well still be 1 degree and pelting with rain. Not really that conducive to a great standard of hockey. There is no account taken for the players who have to play and train in it, the coaches who have to try and set up practices to keep guys moving and watch the standard deteriorate due to frozen hands and lack of dexterity and also for the admin people in the club who are cancelling games, trying to book halls and generally keep the game running. It really depends on what the priority is for the new UHU. Is is to attract players to the sport, keep players in the sport, attract spectators and raise the profile. If it is then have a break, go indoors, play mid week and Saturday through march and April do something different, I dare you, but if it is to just keep the thing moving, get fixtures played regardless of conditions and holidays etc then fire ahead but I would really worry for the long term future of the game. For those of us playing this weekend, lets keep an eye on how many of our branch memebers who are making these decisions are out and about watching and playing in these conditions and if they are ask them just how much they are enjoying it. Perhaps even ask them to strip down to shorts and t shirts and see how they feel then.

Anonymous said...

Indoor should be complementry to the Outdoor game and not a substitute. However the big issue here is that players are not prepared to embrace indoor fully. Fado Fado we and trained and played once a week alongside 2 nights outdoor training. Until you can get a committment of similar nature, indoor will only be seen as a diversion.

Anonymous said...

The funny thing about countries that are achieving at International level is how many of there outdoor national team are also members of their inddor national team.
Right now, 8 of the England outdoor squad picked for the World cup are members of the England indoor team, and a few years ago when Germany won the Outdoor World Cup 10 of the Outdoor squad were members of the Indoor squad.
We should all be looking at indoor to develop and improve, basics, skills and body position, during the most miserable months of the year, that will all carry over to outdoor and improve players and hopefully then our national team.
As Mr Docherty from Clontarf stated, indoor has faded in the last 10 years in Holland, Holland have not won any major trophy for about the same length of time now.
Just an observation and not stating that is the reason for Holland not winning any majors for a while now.

Anonymous said...

Has anybody else noticed the absolute STUPIDITY of the Leinster Div 3 fixture schedule as laid out by our wonderful Leinster branch fixture committee.

21 Dec (A few days before Christmas)
2 Jan (A fixture that was never going to happen even if it didn't snow)
And the Cherry on top for the next one is
20 Feb (There is your winter break)
There is an IJC round on 13 Feb, still a ridiculous amount of time between fixtures.