Following negotiations between Setanta Sports and EHF Marketing, Setanta Sports have confirmed that they will broadcast the Final of the EHF Final4 weekend from Cologne, Germany this Sunday May 29th. 
Final Table
After sniffing around the IOHA pages (yes, once every a few months I do that to check what they are up to) I realized that the future of handball in Ireland doesn’t seems to be in Ireland at all.
A few weeks ago I published a post to thanks those people in Ireland that day after day are working to keep handball alive.
In one of my latest post someone pointed out how the main figures in the IOHA board showed a total lack of interest in Senior Handball.
What I found recently is a note on the IOHA facebookpage saying that for the first time the IOHA honorary membership was given to two people.
You can read more yourself at this link.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Irish-Olympic-Handball-Association/130456927021610#!/notes/irish-olympic-handball-association/irish-olympic-handball-association-confers-1st-honorary-membership/202945766412170
Let’s be clear that I do not want to discredit these two good and charitable people. Despite, I do believe that almost nobody in Ireland actually knows them? Have they done more than Olena, Conal, Robert, Andres, ……? Just to say, 4-5 of the most talented players in the national team came from Olena’s and Robert’s clubs. Both Robert and Olena were not invited to the AGM and pointed out as NON member. Hence my conclusions or doubts are: is the future of handball in Ireland…in Ireland at all?
I won’t go into details of what Olena, Robert, Andres, Conal have done for handball over the past 10-20 years, neither further comment on this matter. You can make up your mind and comment below if you wish.
Dublin International successfully defended its Irish Champion title by taking home victory vs. a very competitive UCD team. The college team played probably the best match of the season keeping the score close and the tension up for most of the game. A few mistakes permitted DI to open up a larger gap and secure the result, at which stage UCD gave space to all its players. The final score 33-23 gives honors to a truly skilful DI team, and over punish a bit a very competitive UCD team.
The Irish Olympic Handball Association (IOHA) announced the appointment of Lúcás Ó'Ceallacháin as General Manager of the IOHA.
Ó'Ceallacháin has over 10 years experience in the sports sector and recently completed his MSc in Sport and Exercise Management at UCD. In addition to his MSc he holds qualifications in Sports Psychology, Sports Journalism, Athlete Performance Pathways, Coaching and Strength and Conditioning.
A former rugby international with Kazakhstan, Ó'Ceallacháin has worked extensively with rugby in countries where rugby is a minority sport, including Kazakhstan, Russia and Finland.
We wish the best of luck to Lúcás, and look forward to work with him on future projects
Dublin International will defend its Irish Champion title in the Final match of the Senior league vs a surprising and very much deserving UCD team.
UCD secured key victories vs Astra during the league and Lughnasa in the semifinal, and are today the best team to challenge the current champions.
Dublin International HC vs University College Dublin OHC
Match will be played on Sunday the 8th of May at 2.30pm in the Loughlinstown Leisure Centre.
Last poll was asking about last year of handball. Answers indicated as 2010 was generally quite poor, showing how there is something wrong on how handball is managed in this country. It is true that handball in Ireland is a very small sport, with few and expensive venues available and no real interest outside the handball community. But because the community is so small, it should be easier to get everybody on board on a “all included” project. Instead the already small community got split in 2/3 smaller reality making overly difficult to organize any larger event.
The new poll ask the simple question should the IOHA address the root cause of this “clan culture” and work actively (and not via black mail as done presently) to bring together all the little and isolated Handball Community?
On the IOHA website appears a article that describe the IOHA Festival of handball a great success, in total harmony with the IOHA president view that “the IOHA board is more important than handball”. Surely from an organizational point of view the 3 days event went smoothly, giving the president plenty of chance to shake more important hands.. But from a handball point of view (played handball, the actual game) the even gave very different response.
Let’s look at ladies first. Ladies handball has been in free fall since 2008, when the IOHA board dismantled a perfectly working project with the Irish Selection team. “we have great plan for Irish ladies handball” was the motivation. But that statement is everything that followed. Astra HC worked hard to keep up the motivation and the standard of the games. But everything around was falling apart. Even the club directly controlled by the IOHA board have seen important losses, this club that was supposed to represent the future of ladies handball, can’t even field a team of 7 players. This declining reality came evident when Astra HC played Glasgow in the ladies event. The ladies teams that a bit more of one year ago brought shine to Irish handball with their performance in the EHF Challenge Cup, was easily defeated by the Scottish ladies. Over the last two years the IOHA failed or had no interested in organising a ladies league, and it was clear how the two seasons without playing competitive games had affected the entire Astra HC system, from players to coaches. Prospects for next year don’t look any better, with Astra HC still being the only club with a strong interest in developing ladies handball, but players have lost motivation, as nothing is really there for them to play for.
The National Men’s team is in a different space. Over the past 3-4 years a lot of money, time, resources have been invested on the Men’s teams. A new coaching staff was put together, with local and two European coaches. As often comes with a change in coaching the positive results came fast in the first year, driven by a radical change in mentality and improved fitness. But over the past 2 years the trend reversed and the limits of the coaching staff to provide further development are evident. The Board likes to shine the third place obtained in the Challenge trophy. Little relevance they give to the fact that the competition has drop in quality since it has been split in two by the EHF, and they seems not to consider that the team finds itself 15 goals behind Malta, and the most recent results put them behind Scotland as well. The team is young, sure, but the Far Oer players didn’t look any older, and the excuse of an older and more experienced Scottish side has been used for the past 11years. Where are the coaching staff limits? Despite one of the European coaches officially covers the role of head coach, the local counterpart is too influential in many key decisions. He brought within the national team his personal issue with local clubs, and left out young talents that disagreed with him. His influence is also clear on the layout of players on the pitch, copying his own club team layout and playing other players out of position. The “trials” sessions seems to be on invitation only, hence the local coach still keeps control. The German coaches haven’t seen any league match since they have been involved with Irish handball, no surprise they are and limited and easily controlled in their selection and too often put players out of position. Tactically the team showed little or no improvement, and often the wrong attach strategy is played vs the opposing defence, raising some question about the tactical awareness. Despite all this, this coaching staff is still the best thing that happened to the men’s team for the past 7 years. Some improvement can still be expected but personal and club level issues, should be left out of the national team giving to the coaches the possibility to work with the largest pool of players possible. Moreover the European coaching staff should get to know players better, by attending local matches and observe players how and where they play in their local club.
