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.
