The bright face of Women's hockey

EM talks to Eimear Cregan as her team prepares to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Eimear Cregan is one of the bright faces of women's hockey in Ireland, and this 23 year old, who already has over 60 international caps, is expected to be one of the Irish team's leading strikers this May when the side attempts to do what no Irish women's hockey team has ever done before - qualify for the Olympic Games.

The Limerick native has just finished a degree in Sports Science at the University of Limerick and is currently juggling a four-day week coaching junior hockey players with a part-time position at the University of Limerick sports centre. The aim, she says, is to allow her the time commitment needed for the runup to the Olympic qualifying tournament in Rome this May. "At the moment I'm training five or six days a week with a combination of running and weight sessions - with regular sessions in either Cork or Dublin. The schedule this year, though, is different from last year, in that we will do more training camps in the run up to Rome which will see the panel train together for a concentrated period of time rather than the weekly trip to sessions in Dublin," says the enthusiastic Cregan.

Already, the Irish team has been to Malaga and will soon travel to South Africa for both an intensive training session and competitive games against one of the teams expected to compete most closely for an Olympic spot in Rome this May. The advantage, says Cregan, is that you get to spend an intensive period "living in the pockets' of team mates which adds to the understanding shared by the players. It is, she says, an exciting time for women's hockey in Ireland. Riet Kuper, the Irish national coach is Dutch, and the Dutch are a traditional powerhouse in the sport and remain one of the leading nations in European hockey. Kuper's coaching has focused on the development of a disciplined tactical defence allied to a quick counterattacking ability which is in part led by Cregan.

In Holland, hockey attracts a huge player and fan base. It is a major amateur sport, akin to the GAA here, says Cregan. Following Kuper's advice, Cregan and an Irish teammate spent several months late last year playing for Push, a leading Dutch club. The experience, she says, was simply fantastic. "I can't say enough how much we enjoyed playing with Push," says Cregan. The club, based in the small town of Breda, near Eindhoven, had over 2,000 members and seven pitches which is a fairly unimaginable set-up in Ireland. And each game was supported by large numbers of fans. We regularly played against Dutch internationals and the whole set-up was something else."

Hockey has to compete with the GAA outside of the larger cities and Northern Ireland and Cregan played under-16 camogie for Limerick (she is, after all, the niece of the famous Limerick hurling coach Eamonn Cregan) but she realised early that hockey could allow her to represent her country and play at the highest levels of the sport.

"I played for my club Lansdowne and the Laurel Hill in secondary school but I understood early that hockey, if I was chosen by Ireland, would allow me to travel and play for my country as opposed to my county," she says. Though she is under no illusions about the challenges faced by the sport in Ireland today. "There simply aren't enough players in the sport at the moment and there isn't enough funding - and all on top of having to compete with the GAA. But I'm really excited by what's happening at the national level now. There's a real sense of direction and the national administration is really getting out there to better sell the game. I really feel confident about what they are doing," adds Cregan

Her optimism is also firmly with the Irish team, currently twelfth in the world rankings. Despite the retirement of several senior team leaders last year, the team has a core of young but internationally experienced players. "We've all been in the international set-up for some time now and we've been involved in its development."

Cregan is also tuned in enough to understand what helps the game off the pitch. "It's a great time to be involved in the national team and thanks are due to companies like ESB for helping the game," she says. "The last few years have seen some fantastic changes and there is lots of talk about the sport now which is great."

And come early June this year, Irish women's hockey could achieve a major first with a place in the Olympic finals in Beijing. If they do, Eimear Cregan will be instrumental in taking the sport to a new level, an achievement her famous uncle would undoubtedly take great pride in. EM