Mark Tumilty wants Team Ireland's winning Paris finish to stand as start of something
Team Ireland coach Mark Tumilty was full of praise as his players closed out the Olympic Games in winning fashion.
A 2-1 defeat of New Zealand to wrap up the Paris experience marked a first win in the final game – with goals from Ben Walker and Jeremy Duncan.
Ireland will now turn the focus to preparations for the EuroHockey Championship Qualifier B in Dublin across August 22-25 and the opportunity for a place at the 2025 EuroHockey Championships in Germany.
"It was nice to get a result,” said Tumilty. “We've been close all week and probably frustrated yesterday.
"But we asked the lads to show a bit of character today and I know we didn't start the game very well but I thought after that we definitely did lots of good things.
"The last quarter, New Zealand definitely pushed us hard on our Penalty Corner Defence set up.
"But our PCD is world class, and we have a world-class goalkeeper as well.
"The guys spend a fair bit of time just making sure we understand just what the opposition offer from penalty corners.
"And New Zealand offered plenty of variations today.
"David Harte offers that extra bit of safety there and I thought he was excellent today.
"He has been superb throughout the tournament.
“It's been an extremely positive year from the outset.
"From qualifying for Paris at Valencia at the outset of the year to participating in the FIH Pro League.
"It's something as a federation I think we need to strive to be playing at on a regular basis with both the men's and women's programmes.
"We need to ask ourselves can we kick on from here? Don't rest on our laurels.
"We should be in the top 10 World Rankings after today's result...the next challenge is later this month to get back into the A Division of the European Championships, it's 2019 since we were last there.
"It's somewhere we need to be, and then after that we want to qualify for the next World Cup.
"We couldn't have had better preparation for that tournament.
"Being in the A Division of the European Championship will make the qualification process for the next World Cup a lot more straight forward and that's vital.
"We have to be at the World Cup in 2026.”
IRELAND: David Harte, John McKee, Matthew Nelson, Daragh Walsh, Kyle Marshall, Shane O'Donoghue, Sean Murray, Peter McKibbin, Michael Robson, Ben Walker, Lee Cole.
Subs (used): Tim Cross, Jeremy Duncan, Peter Brown, Ben Johnson. Nic Page.
The Team GB men’s hockey team – led by former Cookstown player David Ames as captain – fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat to Germany in their latest Group A clash at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium.
Christopher Ruehr scored twice in the second quarter to strike a blow to hopes of finishing top of the group, with both sides having already secured their place in the quarter-finals.
Chasing their first men’s hockey gold since 1988, Team GB meet India next on Sunday.