Ireland captain Sean Murray cut a dejected but incredibly proud figure when speaking to members of the media shortly after his team’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympic hockey competition were ended by Argentina.
The men’s Pool B clash finished with Los Leones snatching a 2-1 win against the Green Machine, a result that confirmed their own safe passage through to the knockout stages.
“It hurts”, said 27-year-old Murray, reflecting on Thursday’s loss against the Pan-Am hockey giants. “We have one more game left (against New Zealand) but no quarter-final, and it is a bitter pill to swallow. We’ve done a lot of work and it has been a long journey to get here. We had lots of chances today but couldn’t convert.
“It has been a tough tournament, facing the Tokyo 2020 gold (Belgium – 2-0), silver (Australia – 2-1) and bronze (India 2-0) medallists in the first three matches”, continued Murray, who highlighting that Argentina were themselves champions at the Olympic Games Rio 2016. “We were always going to be up against it, but it is still very disappointing not to get out of the pool.”
While Ireland have suffered defeats in all four matches, their ability to compete against powerhouse nations that have won multiple Olympic, World and Continental Championships has been clear for all to see.
“We played those teams earlier in the year (in the FIH Hockey Pro League) and there was a big gap between us, truthfully”, said Murray. “We’ve really narrowed that down and should have got a couple of results against them here, which is certainly disappointing. Looking at the positives, it was the first Olympics for a lot of the guys, including myself, and it is amazing to be on this stage. I think we can be proud, with our family and friends watching, that we gave it everything but unfortunately, we just came up short.”
Although their hopes of reaching the knock-out stage of the competition are over, Ireland could still finish their competition on a positive note when they face New Zealand on Friday (2nd August, 17:00 CEST).
“Ranking points are everything in hockey, and New Zealand are another top side”, continued Murray. “We want to finish this competition with a smile on our faces. We’ve worked hard and I think we deserve something, as do the fans and family watching in the stands. We want to finish on a high.”
While not wishing to look too far ahead, Ireland’s captain believes that the majority of the current squad will remain together in a bid to become even more competitive at the highest level.
“There is always something of a rebuild after an Olympics, as people have to make some pretty big life decisions”, said Murray. “But we’ve been on an upward trajectory since we missed out on qualifying for Tokyo, and we have a good group. It’s a young group, I think the future is bright for us. I think people will want to stick around and keep working as hard as we can, and have us much fun and put as much time in as possible so we can really compete.”
The hockey competitions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 take place from Saturday 27 July to Friday 9 August. Both the men’s and women’s competitions feature 12 teams, split into two pools of six ahead of quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal matches. For more information about the hockey competitions at Paris 2024, visit Olympics.Hockey.
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