An 80-caps man

EUROHOCKEY:The Irish hockey team is dreaming of the Olympics and World Cup. Meet its captain, Ronan Gormley

‘IT WOULD BE an experience to have 22 or 25 days’ holidays, although I wouldn’t really know what to do with them,” says Ronan Gormley of the alien concept that is free time. Not that the Irish hockey captain is complaining, for most of his life he has been balancing his sporting career with his studies and, now, his job with accountancy firm KPMG. He couldn’t imagine things any other way.

This year, though, has been especially frenetic for the 26-year-old who, for six months, spent Monday to Thursday of each week working in Wales, before travelling back to Dublin to play for Pembroke Wanderers in what proved to be a demanding club season. And when that concluded a gruelling summer schedule with Ireland began, the climax this month’s EuroHockey Nations Trophy in Wrexham.

“The spell in Wales made things even more hectic,” he says of his time working on a project, Operation Quest, with the North Wales Police, who used KPMG to assist in their efforts to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Moving to Wales was not an option, not least because “it didn’t fit in with the hockey”. “It was a big season for the club, I wanted to play a full part in it.”

Since his schooldays at St George’s College in Surrey and, later, at Blackrock College and Sandford Park, sport has been at the centre of Gormley’s life, whether it was hockey, rugby, cricket, tennis or golf. “It was how you most naturally made friends,” he says, “so I suppose that’s one reason why you’re drawn to it as a kid. I just always had a passion for sports and kept as many as possible going until the hockey started getting more serious. I still play golf when I can, but everything else had to go.”

Gormley was born in Cork, but his father Frank’s business took the family to England when he was four. “We spent 10 years over there but there was never really a permanent plan to stay. I always felt a strong connection to Ireland and my Irish roots, so there was no difficulty moving back – and there was never any question of being fully Anglicised,” he laughs.

He’d hardly returned home when his international hockey career began, working his way up through the under-16, 18 and 21 ranks before making his senior debut five years ago. Captain all the way up, Gormley was an obvious choice for coach Paul Revington when he named him as senior captain earlier this year. “It was a huge honour. There’s a terrific amount of talent in this squad, so to be leading that group of guys, guys I have so much respect for, means a lot.”

That he has won close to 80 caps in five years is an indication of the demands on Gormley and his fellow amateur players. “The commitment and dedication of the players is on a par with any professional, maybe more so because of the sacrifices some of them have to make,” he says.

“But all of this is such a natural part of your life when you play from a young age. You’re used to it, it’s just something you do. And you get used to organising your life to make sure you can carry on playing hockey, or whatever your sport is. People have hobbies or go home and watch the TV, we use that time to train and play matches.

“I suppose we don’t really know what it’s like to have a lot of free time, so we don’t miss it. It would have been an aspiration of mine as a student to do the whole travelling thing, but that will come in time, hopefully. I have done six months in central America and a month in America, so I wouldn’t say I’m deprived, but yeah, the whole J1 Visa thing was never really an option.”

Not an option, either, for hockey players in Ireland is a full-time professional career in their sport. Would that have appealed to Gormley?

“Ah, definitely, the pro life would be ideal. But at the same time unless you’re someone like Cristiano Ronaldo – or anyone in a sport that pays millions – you’re always going to have to think about the future and setting yourself up, education- and skills-wise. So, we are what we are: amateurs with the commitment of professionals.

“It’s not an issue for me or any of the lads to give that commitment, we love the game, we choose to play it. Yeah, the odd time you think ‘God, I’d love to let loose’ and go on the tear with the lads, but it’s a matter of picking and choosing your times. I’ve done enough of that myself, but certainly not half as much as the lads,” he laughs.

No letting loose for now. “Up around 7am, in to work around 8.30-9am, try to get to the gym or training by 6-6.30pm, train for an hour, an hour-and-a-half, then try and grab something to eat, sleep, get up and do it again. And matches at the weekend,” says Gormley of a typical week for the players this summer.

“But it’s worth it. We want to get somewhere with Irish hockey and I think we can, this is a superbly talented group of individuals. The Olympics, the World Cup, these are events we dream of playing in. They would be unforgettable experiences for us, and would make every single sacrifice worthwhile.”

The Eurohockey nations trophy final is today in Wrexham, Wales