Back in 2016, the Irish men’s field hockey team became the first Irish ‘team’ to qualify for the Olympic games since 1948 and the first Irish hockey team to qualify since 1908. Following a long qualification process, they were on the road to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The team was coached by Craig Fulton and captained by David Harte.
Shane O’Donoghue played on that team and the circular sat down with him to ask about the road to Rio and talk about the hard work, dedication and commitment required to reach that level. Shane is 24-years old and from Dublin, he has played hockey since the age of 5. In 2014/15 he signed a contract and spent a year in Belguim playing in one of Europe’s top clubs, Dragons. Thus far he has 139 caps for the Irish men’s team.
Speaking to Shane it was clear that the qualification process was a challenging one making it all the more special when the team qualified “It was not a straightforward qualification as we had to wait almost 4 months until it was 100% definite. We played the Olympic qualifier in Antwerp in my old club K.H.C Dragons in 2015 and we finished 5th in the standings of the tournament which we were fairly confident that it would qualify us for the Rio Olympics. We had to wait until the end of October for the Oceanic Cup in which we needed Australia to beat New Zealand. I remember watching the game over in Belgium in the early hours of the morning, and it was nerve-wracking. The game was very tight and New Zealand was playing on home soil and this was their last chance saloon to qualify for the Rio Olympics. The final whistle went and I was ecstatic. It was a long wait but it was a dream come true.”
Once qualified the team’s attention rapidly turned to a rigorous training programme to ensure that they were ready to take on the monumental task of the Olympic games, “A hell of a lot of work went into training and preparing for the Olympic Games. From January 2016 we had a 3-week warm-weather training camp in Cape Town followed by a series of friendlies against Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Holland, France and Korea not to mention a 5 Nations tournament in Valencia only a few weeks out from the Games itself. Myself and a number of players were based overseas and we flew back after all of our matches on a Sunday to Dublin to train twice a day Monday and Tuesday and then fly back to train and play with our clubs on the continent. I was in a luxurious position at the time playing professional hockey but other teammates were balancing a job and their hockey which is no easy task.”
Shane has been honoured numerous times for his ability on the field. In 2010 he was named Irish young player of the year, he Captained Leinster U21 Interprovincial winners 2012 as well as Captaining Ireland U21 to Celtic Cup & European Championship winners 2012. In 2015 He was nominated by the FIH (International Hockey Federation) for their Rising Star of the Year Award.
