Irish captain Kohler decides to move on

HOCKEY: In the wake of the decisions in the past few days of Annette Fortune and Graeme Francey to step down from their positions as Irish manager and assistant coach, respectively, came the news yesterday that Irish captain Rachael Kohler has announced her retirement from international hockey, all of which leaves coach Riet Kuper with significant rebuilding to do before the Olympic Qualifier in New Zealand next March.

In a career spanning 10 years Kohler won a record 166 caps, playing in two World Cup finals and three European Nations Cups. The 29-year-old, who took up hockey at Midleton College in Cork and went on to play for UCC and her current club Harlequins, has been competing at international level since 1989, when she was called up to the under-16 squad.

Kohler, who is marketing manager at the Castle Hotel in Macroom, made her senior Irish debut as an 18-year-old in February 1993, in a 5-0 defeat by England, and was one of the youngest players to compete in the 1994 World Cup when she was just 19.

She was appointed Irish captain in June 2001, one of four Cork women to hold the honour in recent times (after Mary Logue, Sarah Kelleher and Bernie Heffernan).

An Irish hockey team without Kohler, then, will seem strange. It was assumed you would go on forever? "I would if I could," she said yesterday. "But the time is right for me. It was all very physically and mentally demanding, but my decision was really down to the feeling that it was just the right time for me to go. It was a huge decision because it's been such a brilliant experience and a privilege to play as long as I have, I enjoyed every minute, but there comes a time when you know it's time to move on.

"I took a couple of weeks to think about it after the Europeans in Barcelona, I weighed up everything, but in the end I knew it was right to go. I'll miss it, it's been a fantastic few years, the people I met, the countries I visited, I loved it all, but all that travel away from home and work is a huge demand on any amateur player, and those demands have been increasing so much in recent years.

"International hockey now is unrecognisable, completely, to when I started, although the demands were tough then, too - I can remember, as an 18 or 19-year-old, travelling on the 5.30 train from Cork to Dublin, and then getting a bus to Belfast for training. It is harder now, though, but it needs to be, such are the rising standards in international hockey. We have to be this 'professional' if we're going to keep up."

"Rachael has been an outstanding ambassador for Ireland both on and off the pitch and will be missed by all her international colleagues," said John Smyth, president of the Irish Hockey Association yesterday. "Her dedication and enormous contribution over the past 10 years has won the admiration of all involved in Irish hockey and she will always be an outstanding role model for the aspiring internationals of the future".

"I am very sad to lose such a fine hockey player, but I understand her decision," said Kuper. "She has been an outstanding athlete to work with, as a player, as a captain and as a person."

Will she know what to do with her free time? "It'll take a while to get used to it, I probably won't know what to do with myself, but I'll give it a try."