In these Days of long commutes for punters, Dundalk is practically a suburb of Dublin .... :DQuote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
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In these Days of long commutes for punters, Dundalk is practically a suburb of Dublin .... :DQuote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
Careful now.Quote:
Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie
Holidaysong, thanks for the help with the buses. I reckon I'll head down for the Mongolia game (never thought I'd hear myself say that).
No problem. We are playing Cobh that day, I'll be interested in hearing how it goes. I wonder if it'll be necessary to buy your tickets online or just turn up...
I bought my ticket online. You just print off an e-mail ticket like Ryanair. I'll try and bring a camera and get some pics up.
We smashed the hapless Mongolians 11-0. 2 goals in the first period, 7 in a strong second period and 2 more in the third. Ireland played large patches of the game with 4 men and went down to 3 men on at least three different occasions. Ireland mounted offence easily enough with 4 men and scored a good few of their goals shorthanded. At 3 men they were still comfortable defending and took the puck off Mongolia at will. Ice Hockey's lowest tier has its new whipping boys. Ireland's discipline is worrying though and better teams will punish us with so little men on the ice. One plus in that regard is I think we took no penalties for too many men on the ice an amateur mistake we made too many times last season.
Ireland were strong in defence. Good backchecking and they threw down some heavy hits. The only player who stuck in my memory from last year Simon Kitchen looks like Keith Foy if he ate John Lester. This man is a joy to watch when he makes a hit. He absolutely flattened some of them. Our goalkeeper also made a series of solid saves and kept a clean sheet.
Going forward we were ok but were too mechanical. No flair or pace and it will be hard to open up the better teams particularly given our forward opportunities will be rarer.
I have to say the arena looks great. There's an 800 seater stand overhanging one side of the rink and space around the bottom to stand at the glass. The seats are cushioned and strong enough to hold someone standing on them which is just as well because they have a Richmond Park tightness between the rows. There's excellent catering right beside the seated area and you can still look at the match from the balcony while queueing. There's also a merchandise area before you enter the rink with Irish jerseys, Dundalk Bulls jerseys and ice hockey equipment for sale. The place is well run and the staff are very nice and helpful. The girl at the ticket desk allowed me to trade an unused second ticket for another game and then let me change my mind again after the match.:p
Surprisingly there was at least 100 Mongolians at the game and probably more. My bus from Dublin was nearly entirely filled with Mongolians. They made one large clump in the stand and one on the other side of the arena. They were totally mental and yell like native American Indians whenever they crossed the blue line. It made a good spectacle. There was also a fair few North Americans and continentals at the game. There was a good Irish presence but I couldn't hear any chanting or anything. All in all an enjoyable experience and I hope we can get a league up and running here and a rink built in Dublin.
Any foot.iers driving to the Ireland v South Africa game on Thursday?
http://www.iihf.com/Hydra/Tournament...901_74_3_0.pdf
Here's the stats. Ireland took 52 pentalty minutes, that's insane. Two 10 minute penalties for misconduct and 32 mins worth of niggly 2 min penalties. Sometimes we had 3 men sitting in the sin bin.
We got 43 shots on goal and conceded only 13. Mark Morrisson scored a hattrick, he seemed to be a good finisher alright.
Luxembourg beat South Africa 5-2 today. Dunno what to make of that. South Africa were relegated into our division which would suggest they'd be strong and Luxembourg were the only team we beat last season.
Thankfully Armenia have wirdthdrawn or been expelled. No idea which but they're not there. They loaded up last season with North Americans of Armenian roots and turning from whipping boys into a strong team overnight.
It's good we got to start things off with a handy win and get in a groove. Pity I can't go to the NZ game tomorrow night, I hear they do the haka on ice!:eek:
Thanks for the report Poor Student. I'm up to my eyeballs in college at the minute but I hope to get to the Luxembourg game next Sunday.
Luxembourg game is on Saturday at 8:00, holidaysong. I hope to head to that one, only problem is getting back from Dundalk for the 8:00 games hence me scabbing lifts here.:p
I might be available for the match on Thursday PS if you have transport (will busses/trains be an option?)
Same story as any other day. Grand to get there, impossible to return. A lift will be required.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aberdonian Stu
I'll text the bald one and see if he's game. I'd say pineapple would go but for work (he has no holidays left).
Didn't think anyone of them would be game. If Baldie isn't interested give Mullet a go.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aberdonian Stu
Seems we have some Belfast Giants players this year. The lad Mark Morrisson, who scored a hattrick, is on their books. I read somewhere else four of our players are pro.
Meh. Watched the Stanley Cup while I was in Canada; a lot of fuss over not a huge lot, to be honest. Wouldn't be bothered heading all the way up to Dundalk and back for a match.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aberdonian Stu
We lost 4-2 to New Zealand. We were leading until the 3rd period but New Zealand scored 3 in the end. Seeming as NZ were relegated and last season we were taking big thumpings you can count this as a marked improvement.
So, anyone driving down tomorrow? BohsPartisan? Block G? Anyone?:o
New Zealand beat Luxembourg 8-3. Luxembourg beat South Africa in the first round. If we assume those results are truly representative of the teams' abilities then we may beat South Africa tomorrow. If we could beat Lux too then we might get promoted.
Ireland v South Africa is on Setanta at the moment. Don't know if it's live or not.
It's live. Thanks for pointing that out, I had no idea it was on TV.
Ireland won 2-1. The arena looked very very impressive
The game v Luxembourg is live on Setanta on Saturday evening too
It's a good setup but we need one in Dublin.
A win or draw against Luxembourg should secure promotion.
Eh twas 3-1.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
I caught most of the second period and the entire third. Lot of scrappy penalties given way I thought. I was very impressed with Kelly in goal. He made a few good stops at 2-1.
Roll on Luxembourg.
That's always the case with games at this level. It's a lot more stop/start compared to the NHL, the wider rinks slow down the frantic pace too.Quote:
Originally Posted by superfrank
Yeah, that was a typo.
It was awful scrappy. Hard to watch at times. A few good moments.
I'm sorry lads I really tried for about ten minutes but that was absolutely horrible to watch
If Alan Matthews had an ice hockey team that's what they would look like
I only watched a few minutes when flicked over from ad breaks on other channels & tbh even 2-3 minutes was hard going. I haven't a clue but could see players not so steady on the ice & think a couple of guys slipped.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lim till i die
:eek:
I am guessing there were some Irish-American players plucked from college or below NHL hockey?
What capacity does the Dundalk rink have?
Alll the players based in ireland. Think 3 of them are with the Belfast GiantsQuote:
Originally Posted by pete
800 is the capacity I think
3 from the giants the rest I think were amateur. It was awful to watch compared to the NHL, even compared to the UK Elite League which isn't bad at all. So many mistakes from guys who looked like they were new to skating, never mind hockey. South Africa were absolutely woeful. Still, gotta support your local team eh? ;)
To put things into context, I think this is the first year we've gotten any Giants players on our team and no league exists in this country. As far as I know the only game our amateurs would get to play in a year was the few times they'd represent Ireland. We've purposely elected not to take in North Americans in favour of developing a proper grassroots game here. It's near impossible to get any info about plans for the game here but I believe there's plans to build more rinks around the country.
I don't support foreign hockey so think I am ok...?Quote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
I might watch a little bit on NHL Stanley Cup on Setanta but would have no interest in the overly long game regular season. Teams play so many games & so many teams qualifying for the playoffs that regular season seems pointless.
Building more rinks (and putting well run junior teams in them) is the only way things can improve - up to this point the only option on the entire island has been to go to Dundonald, with the junior teams playing in the Scottish leagues.Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Student
If next season there's a junior programme in both Dundonald and Dundalk, then that's a huge step in the right direction. If they can add in (for example) Dublin, Cork and Galway further down the line, then in the long term that should help massively.
The other thing I'd add is, that it's essential that any new rinks being built are full size (60x30 metres), or damn close to it. The two closed rinks in Dublin (Phibsboro & Dolphins Barn) were both unworkably small for a game which can moves so quickly.
'Grassroots' is surely the wrong term in this context. I'd be thinking more 'ice ice baby deevelop, ice ice baby deevelop'Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Student
Ireland secured promotion. They came back from two goals down to draw 3-3 and won it on the shootout. Great crowd in Dundalk. Next year will probably be a painful but educational experience somewhat like the Super 8 phase in the cricket WC. It should help to raise the profile of the game here slightly.
What teams will we be playing next year?
Division 2 next season is:
Australia, China, Belgium, Bulgaria, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Romania, Serbia, Spain.
Mexico??? :D :D
It's worth mentioning that D2 is subdivided into 2 groups, so Ireland will only be playing against half of those teams (most likely the European ones).Quote:
Originally Posted by holidaysong
Apparently an 8 team league is starting in September. All games in Dundalk. 8 teams allegedly are Dundalk Bulls, Belfast Bruins, Lisburn Prowlers, Navan Eagles, Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin Flyers, Dublin Rams and last but not least UCD.