As we inch ever nearer to the beginning of the FIH Hockey Professional League 2025-26 season on 9 December, we’re excited to deliver you an unique pre-season interview sequence with gamers and coaches from the world’s prime hockey nations collaborating within the “League of the Greatest”.
This sequence will dive into the minds of the game’s best athletes and coaches, uncovering their ideas on the upcoming season, private objectives, and the methods their groups are crafting to compete on the highest degree. From seasoned veterans to rising stars, these interviews present a singular glimpse into the eagerness, preparation, and drive that gasoline the groups vying for glory.
In right now’s interview we converse with Sarah Hawkshaw, captain of the Irish girls’s hockey crew — who will make their debut within the competitors throughout season 7, having earned promotion through the FIH Hockey Nations Cup 2024/25!
How excited are you to make your FIH Hockey Professional League debut?
“We’re extraordinarily excited for our Professional League debut in Dublin in December. Not solely that however attending to host our first Professional League video games provides to the thrill. After following our nationwide males’s crew within the event the previous two years, we now have seen how vital it’s to be competing within the Professional League, and the way they’ve matched prime world nations on quite a few events. We see the event as a significant alternative for our squad to play persistently on the highest degree all year long as a result of format of the event providing one thing totally different than what we’re used to, because it runs as extra of a yr lengthy league, relatively than the standard event fashion worldwide competitors. The sport of hockey strikes at a quick tempo, and being within the Professional League will progress the Inexperienced Military’s momentum as we transfer into vital years forward with World Cup and Olympic {Qualifications}.”
How particular is it to get to play these video games in Eire in entrance of a house crowd?
“Taking part in these video games in our residence brings with it an added sense of delight not just for us as gamers, however for our supporters and hockey neighborhood. We all know our Irish supporters have travelled far and large to help us on the worldwide calendar and here’s a probability to present again to them and convey the highest nations of hockey to our personal again yard. It additionally presents us the chance to deliver the love of hockey into extra individuals’s lives as we attain a broader viewers on the island of Eire that actually is sport mad. Residence benefit makes a distinction in sport, and we are going to be certain that to maximise its potential. We stay up for seeing a sea of inexperienced line the sidelines in Sport Eire Campus.”
What are your ambitions for this Professional League season?
“Our ambition for this season’s Professional League is to take it sport by sport as we all know with every match comes the chance to extend our world rankings with such a focus of excessive calibre groups. We imagine we’re amongst this class of hockey nations and we are able to compete in each match up and are available away with a number of wins within the season forward.”
Except for Eire, what stage of the FIH Professional League are you most wanting ahead to?
“It’s onerous to not point out Hobart, Australia as an thrilling stage forward. A nation that is also sports activities mad and is a rustic that I don’t imagine any of us have performed a global fixture in, it is going to be new territory for us all. Even with it being internationally, we count on to see a couple of acquainted faces out right here supporting us from the facet strains.”
What opposition are you most excited to play in opposition to?
“I don’t assume there may be one nation over one other that I may say. As we now have persistently competed in all however one of many top-level majors over the previous 8 years, we now have performed all the competing nations. Each fixture will include its personal challenges, its personal alternatives, and we shall be excited to line out proudly within the Inexperienced Jersey.”
