Mullan targeting more after 'special' milestone

Katie Mullan has achieved almost everything in international hockey, but up until last week she had never played a game in the FIH Pro League.

Fitting, then, that she would win her 250th cap for Ireland doing just that.

"It means an awful lot," she said after the 2-1 defeat by England on Sunday.

"I'm very passionate about playing for Ireland.

"It means a lot to me to put this jersey on every time I do it and to celebrate the 250th appearance in Dublin in front of a home crowd with a lot of my best mates and an incredibly talented group of hockey players, it was very, very special and I won't forget it."

For the past thirteen years Mullan has been one of Ireland's most influential hockey players.

Since making her senior international debut in 2012, Mullan has been part of every major chapter in modern Irish women's hockey.

She captained the team in the historic run to the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup final in London, where Ireland claimed a silver medal and announced themselves on the global stage.

The 31-year-old also led the squad to qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Ireland's first appearance at the Olympics in women's hockey.

After giving up the captaincy, Mullan continues to play her part, helping the side to back-to-back FIH Hockey Nations Cup silver medals and promotion for the first time to the Pro League, the most prestigious annual competition in international hockey.

Ireland's debut in the competition yielded three defeats from four matches in Dublin.

Two came against Belgium, the number three side in the world, and one to England, with all three reverses coming via a 2-1 scoreline.

However, there was the bonus-point shootout win against England after the sides drew 1-1, proving that this Irish squad will not be outclassed in this competition when the action resumes again in the new year.

"We've proven this week that we're exactly where we're supposed to be and that we can put it up to the best teams in the world," Mullan added.

"We've also learnt from small moments and that's what it is at this level, it's small moments that define games and we learn from those, and we'll take that into the next round of the Pro League.

"We've sat in hotel rooms across the world watching the Pro League from a distance and now we're in it and it's a very special competition and it's where we get to put ourselves up against the best time and time again and we will grow significantly from being here.

"It's onwards and upwards from this moment."

It’s a big eight months ahead for the Irish women’s squad.

The Pro League resumes in Hobart, Tasmania at the start of February and before the month is over the World Cup qualifiers will have started in Santiago, Chile.

There are two more rounds of the Pro League in Rotterdam and Berlin before the end of June and then, hopefully, the World Cup itself in August in the Netherlands and Belgium.

There is plenty of competition for places in the squad with four players making their international debuts in Dublin over the past week.

She may be considered a veteran of the squad but Mullan still wants to be part of these exciting times.

"A marker for me is that they motivate me to keep going every single time because it's like a large dose of FOMO [fear of missing out].

"I don't want to miss out so I see that there's something special coming from this group as I've seen from groups in the past.

"As we keep growing, the talent is there and we just have to knit it together, performance after performance and the Pro League is perfect for us to be able to learn how to do that."