For almost a decade the rollercoaster ride taken by the Ireland women’s hockey team has been intertwined with shootouts.
From missing out on 2016 and 2024 Olympic qualification to winning shootouts in the quarter and semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and making their first Olympics Games in Tokyo in 2021.
So perhaps it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that this final would end up the way it did.
Ireland had produced some superb attacking hockey in winning their four games on route to the final, including a 1-0 win over New Zealand in the pool stages.
However once Surridge‘s reverse stick shot beat an unsighted McFerran in the sixth minute, Ireland were chasing the game.
Not that there was any panic. The hard work put in by Grundie in his first few months in charge of the squad was clear to see.
Ireland began to build momentum and by the end of the third quarter had forced five penalty corners but converted none.
In fact penalty corner routines were poor with only one of 25 scored in the five games, a statistic that Ireland will need to work on moving forward.
In the final quarter, Ireland bombarded the New Zealanders. Power’s shot went just wide and from a corner Hawkshaw was inches away.
Once again on the big occasion it was Ireland’s most experienced player who stepped up.
Mullan twisted in the circle and fired the equaliser into the New Zealand net with 3:57 remaining in the game.
Even then Ireland came close to winning it, New Zealand had nothing left, except the sanctuary of a shootout in which they’d had practice the day before by beating Chile in the semi-final.
They held their nerve and it was just enough to end Irish dreams in the cruellest way possible, and not for the first time.
