Sean Dancer: Ireland coach says future is bright after EuroHockey Championships

Sean Dancer talks to the team at the EuroHockey Championships in Germany

Ireland women's head coach Sean Dancer believes the future is bright as he begins preparations for the Olympic qualifiers in January.

The Irish secured fifth place at the EuroHockey Championships, where five of the eight sides came into the event ranked in the world's top seven.

It left the squad feeling disappointed but Dancer says that's a good thing.

"For us to finish fifth is quite exciting for the future of where this group can get to," he said.

He added: "We did a little calculation and this is probably the most inexperienced Irish team that's ever been to the Europeans.

"So yeah, I do think there's really exciting things there for us. Just looking ahead now to those Olympic qualifiers."

Triple targets

Ireland had three goals going into the tournament. They wanted to reach the semi-finals for the first time, confirm their place at the Olympic qualifiers and also play at the next EuroHockey Championships in 2025 without having another qualification tournament.

Losing their opening game to England meant achieving the first of these aims was always going to be tough, but they did achieve the other two by playing some top-quality hockey.

"I think probably we were disappointed with the way we finished off the tournament," said Dancer. "Certainly, the England game wasn't great, but after that, we really gave it our best effort, and I think we performed exceptionally well.

"Germany, even though they beat us 5-0, it didn't feel like it was a 5-0 game. So even in that one we felt we performed to a standard and then we were really hoping to obviously finish off the tournament. We didn't quite hit the mark despite finishing fifth, so we probably do end it with a bit of frustration."

"The Europeans was always a test to see where we were at. The Europeans is the building block for that Olympic qualifier, which is obviously the key target for us.

"So, this was a really good test to see where we're at. And the thing is, we walk away a bit disappointed. So that's actually a really good place to be in, finishing fifth and still being disappointed that we feel like we have more there.

"So, for me, the message is, yes, we need to take some lessons away from the Europeans and we need to work hard for the rest of the year, but we're still on track to give it our best performance once we get to January."

Dancer won't find out who the opposition will be at those Olympic qualifiers or indeed which venue, Valencia or Changzhou until the start of November when the Continental championships will be completed and the 16 qualifiers will be known.

He'll take the positives and negatives from this week and begin to plan ahead.

Ireland celebrate Naomi Carroll's goal in the 1-1 draw with Italy on Saturday

"There are moments where we get on top and we don't put a team away or we don't make the most of that opportunity. And then when the other team comes back at us and starts to get momentum, we weren't able to quite keep them out.

"And I think you saw that in two games. The first quarter against England, we were actually quite dominant, but after they scored, then they got a roll on and rolled over us. And with Italy, we probably did quite well in the first quarter from a circle penetration point of view.

"But then the momentum of the game swung a little bit and then they scored. So, I think probably just trying to control those moments of swing during the game of momentum would probably be a key takeaway to work on for me.

"And the pleasing part was certainly our ability on the ball. We created circle opportunities, which is something really important, and we scored goals and we showed when we do it really well we scored five against Scotland and that was exceptionally good."

He concluded: "I'm trying not to think about the qualifiers too much. The reality is, whatever tournament that you're in, it's going to be very cutthroat. It's going to be extremely tough. So, I think that's the first thing is that we need to prepare well for both situations.

"Obviously, from a logistic point of view, it's certainly probably easier for us to be in Valencia. You're going to have to beat some top-class teams, and that becomes our focus once we know exactly who we're playing, and then we can prepare extremely well for that."