O’Hanlon pleased to have Mcintosh in charge
Friday 15 April 2011; Caroline O'Hanlon in action for Northern Ireland against Scotland in the Home International Netball Championship at the Antrim Forum, County Antrim. Mandatory Credit - John Dickson - www.dicksondigital.com
Northern Ireland’s star player Caroline O’Hanlon has welcomed the appointment of double World Cup winner Jill McIntosh as the new national coach.
The revered former Aussie supremo arrived in Belfast last week to take charge of preparations for April’s European Championships and will watch her first Premier League games tonight, a double-header at Lisburn Racquets.
League leaders Graduates should coast past top four strugglers Laganside in the early start but the second game of the evening, in which O’Hanlon will lead Larkfield against champions Belfast Ladies, could prove well worth waiting for.
The Lisburn club are determined to bounce back from a lean January with what would be a first victory of 2012 and their captain will also be keen to put her best foot forward with McIntosh in attendance.
Although struggling to attend national squad training at present due to clashes with her shifts as a hospital doctor, the European player of 2010 remains crucial to her country’s cause.
Ensuring she has O’Hanlon on board will be one of the pressing priorities for McIntosh and it sounds like the high profile Aussie’s appointment is whetting the world-class centre’s appetite to continue in international netball.
“Jill McIntosh’s tremendous track record of success at the highest level commands huge respect and her international experience is second to none,” says O’Hanlon.
“It’s great that she’s here and naturally everyone’s excited about the prospect of working with her in the lead-up to the Europeans and building on what has been achieved in the past few years.”
Belfast Ladies lost heavily when these teams met two months ago but inflicted Larkfield’s first defeat of the season on the opening Friday of 2012 and are right back in title contention. The champions’ captain Noleen Lennon will be a huge handful for a reshuffled Larkfield defence so Kyla Bowman will have to shine.
FIXTURES (all at Lisburn Racquets): Graduates v Laganside, Causeway v Kingsway (both 7pm), Belfast Ladies v Larkfield, Donaghadee v Holywood (both 8.30pm)
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 13 C to 21 C
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