The Hook passes half a million hits

It was with great pleasure that I discovered The Hook passed its 500,000th hit late on Saturday night, something which looked a long way off when I first started the blog back in August 2007.

The reasons were simple. I felt Leinster hockey was terribly represented in the local and national press for a sport with such a high participation rate. Frustrated at this, I wanted to offer a media outlet.

After just two months in existence - in fact the last time I produced a hit update - comments on the site suggested "Irish hockey is so full of nasty, malicious slime and begrudgers" who would be intent on "wrecking the site". Since then, while there are some fairly parochial and innocuous comments, but, for me, the major success of the site has been that it has created a sort of online hockey community and scarcely found people trying to bring down the blog in any way.

Indeed, since passing the landmark number of hits, I worked out that at least 200 people have directly contributed to the site whether by emailing in, accepting phone calls or accosting me at matches to give me some information. I'm sure countless more comment, even in spite of my tightening reign.

It shows to me there is a very decent collective will at work which I'm glad is getting some sort of information about our sport.

As with all these things, there are loads of people who are central to the success and need to be thanked. Thank you monologues can usually get a bit cringe-worthy the longer they go on so I decided to limit this to just two people.

First off, when Adrian Boehm sent me photos on spec wondering if I could use a few pics, I had no idea the amazing contribution that was to follow, sending approximately 150 sets of pics and opening the floodgates for a number of top photographers (and a couple of young up and coming snappers already producing great pictures). Over 200,000 views of the Irish Hockey Photographers website and my own flickr site suggest this is one of the major attractions of the site.

Secondly, Alan Good from Southern Fried has been a great sounding board for all manner of issues, including legal advice, the rules of journalism, getting paid work and all things Munster which I owe a debt of gratitude. The fact The Hook has helped spawn two off-shoots is one of the great endorsements that something is being done right.

Finally, I'd like to thank all the readers and players for making the while venture worthwhile. Though I'm now getting a few bits and pieces of advertising on a more regular basis, the blog is basically a hobby that I do in addition to my full-time work as a sports journalist. 

Some people suggest I may get sick of covering matches or doing the site but, while it can be hard to cover all the things I would like to, generally it is great craic. 

Here's to the next half a million, keep on blogging...