13 December 2011

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5 December 2011

Interview with Eugene Magee

Nicknames - Euge, Geno, Ujin, Cobra

Best book - Lance Armstrong, "It's not about the bike"; Dan Brown, "The Da Vinci Code"

Sporting role model - Federer is a class act and Usain Bolt because he loves what he does.

Is in a relationship

Football Team - None

Music - Depends on the mood, but a few that I like listening to at the miute would be the Coronas, General Fiasco, John Mayer

Movies - Forrest Gump; Shawshank REdemption, Step Brother, Dumb and Dumber and now coming into Christmas my favourites would be Home Alone 1 and 2!

Words to live by - You can have anything you want it you are willing to give up the belief that you cannot have it.

You made a successful transition from forward to midfield during the Summer of 2011 (playing a bit of both) and obviously made an enormous impact on the Team! You must be looking forward to the Olympic Qualifiers in March - were you excited to hear the announcement of the home venue?

Yeah, it will be great playing in front of a home crowd. I think their support will give us a huge boost. I'd say a few of the Bann lads were very excited to hear it as well because it gives them a chance to put on the Ireland hats 'n get the songs going again! Our team has been improving a lot over the last couple of years and this is now our best chance to qualify. It would be a dream come true to go to the Olympics!

You're half way through your 3rd season at Dragons HC (supporters pictured above) - no doubt hoping to make it 3 out of 3 Belgium league titles! After last season's EHL heartbreak (against Chris Cargo's Reading :-) ) I'm sure your Team must have their sights set on the next big challenge?

Yeah and possibly another crack at Reading should we beat Elektrostal and they beat Club An der Alster. That will be a good match and hopefully this time the umpires will time the shoot-outs properly ;) We have a great team this year with a quite a few former and current internationals so hopefully we can make it three league titles in a row and improve on our EHL placing from last year.

We found this photo (above) of you and Ian from a few years ago. I suspect Sloaner was in awe of you and already dreaming of playing in the Irish Team with you one day, but did you even know who this little guy was? Was playing on the international stage always a major objective of yours? What age were you when you made your debut for the Senior Irish Team?

Ha, always knew this guy would grow up to be a great player, never knew that he'd have such poor choice in music though ;) Yeah, ever since I started hockey I knew I wanted to go as far as I could with it and playing for Ireland was that ambition. I was 18 when I started and debuted against a 10 man Belgian side who beat us. Safe to say Ian has had a more successful introduction into the Irish scene!

It's well known that you're a former Hurler (and we believe your girlfirend, Aoibhne, is a current Camogie player?). Who did you play for and at what stage did you decide that Hockey was the game for you? Do you think your background in Hurling influenced your style of playing hockey in any way?

I played for a hurling club called Ballela, who are fierce rivals with my girlfirend's home club, Ballyvarley! But she eventually saw the light and moved to the Ballela Camogie Team! Aoibhne and I both played at county level but I had to give it up at U18, she continued and still plays for the Down Senior Camogie Team as well as playing a bit of hockey for Banbridge ladies :) Definitely, I think the basics I had gained from hurling particularly with the aerial skills helped a lot when I transitioned into hockey. I played them both as much as I could until I had to make the choice between the two because I couldn't committ to training for both. It was when I first started playing international hockey that I realised how much training it would involve so unfortunately hurling took the back seat. I still managed a few games if I had a bit of free time, but that wasn't often. Still have a keen interest in it though.