‘It’s not about me making saves’
Ireland’ s shoot out heroine Aye is ha McFerran tells Cliona Foley how she became the World Cup’s standout goalkeeper
IT is no secret that, up to last Thursday, the Irish women’s hockey team had something of a hate-hate relationship with penalty shootouts.
But they are an inescapable fact of life, particularly for young goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran, a 22-year-old from Larne, who made her Irish senior debut the day after her 18th birthday and already has 74 caps.
Her heroics in general play had seen her tipped to win ‘Goalkeeper of the Tournament’ at the World Cup even before Ireland’s dramatic quarter-final shootout victory.
It was in that cliff-hanging finale that McFerran’s talent and nerveless, combative style was fully showcased to demonstrate exactly why Ireland are now so fearless about a scenario that previously reduced them to quivering wrecks.
“We knew we had the best keeper in the game,” Chloe Watkins gasped after her own magnificent clincher. “We knew she was going to keep making saves. We had whole faith in her and she just kept blocking and blocking.”
Watkins, Roisín Upton and Ali Meeke deserve equal credit for burying the three penalties that put Ireland through to today’s semi-final against Spain, but it was McFerran who set the tone.
In hockey’s unique one-on-one against-the-clock shootouts (attackers start at the 25m line and have just eight seconds to score) she coolly out-thought and out-manoeuvred her first three opponents. India didn’t score until their fourth penalty and that was too little too late.
Shootouts are a challenge that McFerran absolutely thrives on. Just three weeks ago she told this reporter that facing penalties is her favourite thing to do.
STRENGTH
“I love shootouts!” she enthused. “It’s the time for any goalkeeper to show what they can do. It can be such a strength of ours, to play with their (opponents’) minds and force them where we want them to go.
“As soon as the whistle is blown I try to narrow their angle or gauge what they’ll do. I can be aggressive or hold back and I love putting pressure on the forward.”
McFerran, who has three siblings, is the “only sporty one” and, like many of her Irish team-mates, played many sports until her mid-teens. She started hockey aged eight but also played soccer, including ‘county’ for Antrim.
She was a soccer winger or striker and also played outfield in hockey.
“I was desperate to score and always thought the (out) field players had more fun but I was always stuck in the nets because I was too aggressive to play field,” she chuckled. “If there’s a 50-50 ball I’ll probably win it. I’m very aggressive in the way I play.”
At 5ft6in McFerran is considered small for a goalkeeper but has compensated through her all-action style.
“For me it’s all about being agile and aggressive,” McFerran revealed. “Because I’m so aggressive I’d be out sliding a lot so I work on that. You need to be able to push yourself on the ground, and the way I play means I need a lot of leg strength.”
It’s that agility and explosiveness that makes her stand out, says Irish senior men’s keeper David Harte, the two in-a-row winner of World Hockey’s men’s ‘Goalkeeper of the Year’ award in 2016-17.
“Since the introduction of shootouts (in 2011) particularly, hockey goalkeepers need to be a lot more mobile and agile and really powerful and quick over the first three to five metres. You can see that in Ayeisha’s game,” he notes.
“And it’s not just in the shootouts. She closes down the space in what we call the seven-metre-zone – from inside the penalty spot to the goalline – really well.
“That’s where a lot of crucial saves are made or goals are scored and she’s really excellent in that area. She’d made numerous saves there.”
It is surely no coincidence that Ireland has two world-class goalkeepers and Harte confirms that, giving credit for it to one of Irish hockey’s many hidden heroes.
“We have quite a secret weapon in our national goalkeeping coach Nigel Henderson,” he reveals. “I’ve been working with him since 2006.
“He’s a very shy, modest man who would never be in the spotlight but he’s a former Irish goalkeeper and captain himself who’s given over 20 years service to Irish hockey. Nigel sat on the bench for 10 years before he got his first cap so that’ll give you an idea of how mentally tough he is.
McFerran’s club coaches, especially Sharon Moffat at Pegasus, are also credited with developing her skills, which are currently plied in the US college system.
Three years ago she took up a hockey scholarship at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and she will graduate next May with a degree in Health Science and Human Performance.
Given her stunning form at the World Cup, European clubs will surely queue up to sign the vivacious young Ulster keeper who loves to wear brightly-coloured pads and quips “I don’t think my personality will ever allow me blend into the background!”
Yet asked, ahead of this tournament, to name her favourite save ever she said: “It’s difficult to single one out because, with goalkeeping, it’s all about context.
“I pride myself on my organisation and communication within the defence. There’s definitely games I know we’ve defended really well in because I’ve had those things in order. It’s not about me making saves. It’s about me helping my team-mates and enabling them to do their jobs well.”