Monkstown Hockey Club is the third oldest hockey club in the country after Dublin University and Three Rock Rovers.
Established in 1894, the club currently boasts five men’s and four ladies’ senior teams along with 250 fillies and 150 colts in their youth section.
Based out of Rathdown School in Glenageary, the club’s ladies team was formed in 2008 and have been slowly and surely been making quite a name for themselves on the hockey scene ever since.
“The ladies section was established in 2008 with 16 players who formed a social team and competed at the bottom of the Leinster League in Division 14,” explained first team captain, Aileen Keary.
“Since then, the club has achieved great success and is now made up of 80 female players who are split across four senior teams competing between Divisions three and twelve.”
Having fun at Monkstown Hockey Club.
“To ensure the continued success of the ladies section, we created a fillies section in 2010, which now has 250 active young members and a waiting list of over 150 girls. Which is just fantastic!” she added.
“Since that first foray into ladies hockey in 2008, we have achieved five Leinster Cups, eight Leinster League titles and several promotions to higher divisions along the way.
“Our most successful season to date was the 2014/15 season, which saw all four teams being promoted and the top two teams in the club reaching their respective cup finals, so that was quite an achievement.”
It’s not all about what goes on while on the pitch though, as Aileen states, explaining that a lot of work goes on behind the scenes too.
“The ladies 1st team is currently coached by former Irish International, Gareth Watkins alongside a number of club members, Dave Kenning, Grandt Aston, Gavin O’Halloran, Andrew Gaw and Nikkey Cullen,” she said, adding that sponsorship from 98FM has also been a massive help.
The first team celebrate winning the League and promotion.
“In six short years the ladies first team have been promoted from division 14 to division 3, facing great opposition from well-established clubs along the way.
“This year, having secured league title success, the first team reached their first Leinster Trophy final, beating teams from leagues above us along the way. After an exhilarating final, we were defeated by the reigning champions, and we couldn’t have done it all without the support from all the backroom team and supporters.
“It can be tough to try and keep it all going,” she admitted. Each team trains twice a week, with at least one match at the weekend.
“The players are mostly from the South Dublin region who mostly started playing hockey in schools such as Rathdown, St. Andrew’s College, Holy Child Killiney, Wesley College and Loreto Dalkey.”
Ladies club captain, Kerri-Ann Cullen in action.
“It’s all worth it though. If you look back to when the club was established in 2008, the aim was to create a club for girls to compete at the highest level of hockey and establish a youth section to develop young talent.
“Following all the success to date, the club continues to strive for this goal and with the first team now just two divisions away from the top, the dream certainly draws closer. With a growing youth section, we hope to see members representing their province and country in the future.
“The biggest highlight of it all was seeing four teams being promoted in one season and reaching the final of the Irish Challenge Cup and Leinster Trophy.
“On top of that we had the first influx of players join the senior club from the youth section a number of which made a substantial contribution to the success of all the team and that’s fantastic to see.”
Top goal scorer Jenny Skyes battles through the opposition.
“As the ladies section is still only seven years old, the majority of players are still breaking through the ranks with a number of members still playing at school level. It’s brilliant to watch the club going from strength to strength though and we have high hopes for the future.
“A word of advice for younger players? Definitely to enjoy the sport, play for fun and always keep pushing for success,” she finished.
If you would like to get involved with Monkstown Hockey Club you can check out their Facebook page here and keep up to date with everything going on on Twitter.
Aileen gives the girls a pep talk.
