“We’re definitely on the right track”
By Stephen Leonard
HANNAH Matthews is hoping the Ireland Senior Women’s Hockey team can push on from their encouraging start to 2021 as they continue their build-up to this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Loreto’s senior international, together with clubmates Nicci Daly and goalkeeper Liz Murphy, was part of the squad that travelled to Murcia for a short warm weather camp and series of friendlies with a Spanish side ranked seventh in the world.
Terenure women Hannah Matthews has been encouraged by the start Ireland’s senior women’s hockey team have made to the year
And Sean Dancer’s team acquitted themselves impressively, carding two victories, as many draws and one loss- a remarkable return given that they had not seen competitive action for near to a year.
“Spain had played Belgium in a couple of games before Christmas, but it’s been a year or so since we last played an international so we didn’t know what to expect really when went to Spain” explained Matthews.
“We were so relaxed going out, having not played an international for so long. It was almost like the World Cup again- just go out and enjoy it.
“It just re-affirmed how much we missed playing competitively and we were pretty happy especially given how difficult it was over lockdown to stay focused and motivated.
“The results in Spain were very positive and the performances too were very positive, so we’re definitely on the right track it feels” said the Terenure woman.
Given the fall-out from the global Covid crises, the Ireland women team’s road towards a first ever appearance at the Olympic Games over the coming months is likely to be a rocky one.
Certainly Matthews is loath to try and predict how that build-up will go saying “Things are changing so much, we don’t know what will be happening, but we’d definitely like to get a warm-weather competition.
“Tokyo could be one of the hottest Olympics ever and so it would be great to get a warm-weather tournament, but the way things are, we’ll probably just have to take what we can get.”
Matthews, who made her senior international debut back in 2014, was part of the squad that captured the imagination of the nation when they won silver at the World Cup in London back in 2018.
The second lowest ranked team in the competition, the Green Army stunned the hockey world by reaching the final where they were eventually undone by the mighty Dutch.
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