Ireland's Mark Tumilty flags up 'opportunity' off Pro League dates

A 20-man squad will head to London for dates with Germany and Great Britain over the last round of four games to wrap up Ireland’s debut in the series.

"The opportunity to play against the top eight nations in the world on a consistent basis cannot be underestimated,” said Tumilty about the FIH Pro League. “The players have grown and we have also grown as coaches in the three series played so far of the FIH Pro League and the national teams can only benefit by being exposed to this level of competition on a consistent basis.

"Hopefully the women's team can get over the line in their FIH Nations Cup tournament and qualify for the Pro League too."

Lee Valley Centre – the venue for Ireland’s silver success at the Women’s Hockey World Cup in 2018 – will stage the games.

Ireland meet Germany and Great Britain following two wins against a Belgium side ranked number two in the world.

David Harte is back after celebrating Hoofdklasse championship joy with Kampong in the Netherlands.

Jamie Carr, Luke Madeley and Sean Murray join the panel as winners of the Belgian championship with Gantoise and Kyle Marshall finishing with success in England as part of Old Georgians. At domestic level, Peter Brown and Johnny McKee won the EYHL in Banbridge colours.

"There's a reduced squad for London, to give players an opportunity for pitch time in preparation for Paris (Olympic Games),” said Tumilty. “I am bringing 19 players from Antwerp and David Harte comes in.

"We have three players who won the Belgian championship with Gantoise and one each who won the Hoofdklasse in the Netherlands and the English championship and, of course, two members of the EYHL League and Champions Trophy winners Banbridge is good for the squad."

The first game is scheduled to start on Saturday against Great Britain from 12.15 before Germany the following day (10 o’clock) and again on Wednesday (5.45). The final fixture will be on Thursday, June 6 against Great Britain from 8 o’clock."The hardest part of the job is deciding who to bring and who to leave out (for the Olympic Games),” said Tumilty. “The 16 players who go will be representing everyone in the entire squad.

"The quality of players that we are leaving at home shows the depth of the squad and that's something that we have to develop and maintain as we go on.

"We can only take 16 players to Paris, with a goalkeeping reserve and two outfield reserves on stand-by.

"Those players can only be brought in if there's a tournament ending injury and that would be a permanent switch in that event.

"That's a change from the arrangements in the previous Olympics."

IRELAND: David Harte, Jaime Carr, Shane O’Donoghue, Kyle Marshall, Luke Madeley, Peter McKibbin, Mark McNellis, Daragh Walsh, Nick Page, Tim Cross, Jonny Lynch, Sean Murray, Peter Brown, Michael Robson, Ali Empey, Johnny McKee, Ben Walker, Ben Johnson, Matthew Nelson, Jeremy Duncan.