Sinéad Kissane: It’s now or never for Irish hockey teams as they bid to seal ticket to Paris Olympics
Katie Mullan poses for a portrait during a Hockey Ireland media conference at the Hockey Pavilion on the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin. Photo: Sportsfile
The blunt ends of how an Olympic dream can blossom or burn in play-offs was illustrated by the different outcomes for the Irish women’s and men’s hockey teams over four years ago in the final qualifiers for the Tokyo Games.
In November 2019 in Donnybrook, there was ecstasy as the Irish women’s team qualified for a first Olympics with a 4-3 win over Canada in a sudden death penalty shoot-out.
