HOCKEY/Women's World Cup review: As the Irish players went their separate ways in Perth yesterday, with most of them staying on in Australia for a well-earned break after the World Cup, Riet Kuper was returning to Holland where she must be in her office tomorrow morning, writes Mary Hannigan

In the eyes of her NATO employers this past month was a holiday for Kuper, even if there was nothing restful about it.

While she acknowledges that her future as Irish coach is uncertain, Kuper is already planning for next year, "networking" with other coaches in Perth to try to arrange a top-class build-up for Ireland to September's European Championship and the Olympic qualifier the following year.

At a time when most of those around her, drained from the efforts they have put in to the World Cup, feel like they never want to see a hockey pitch again, Kuper's enthusiasm for the job seems boundless.

What is clear, however, is that even if she is requested to remain in her post she will walk away if the Irish Hockey Association (IHA) does not back her efforts to lift Ireland to a level higher than they achieved in Australia.

If she felt 15th in the world was as good as it could get she would leave now, but she has endless faith in Ireland's potential in this sport, not least in the character of her players, and is desperate for it to be realised.

The response to that "threat" may well run along the lines of: this was the best prepared team Ireland ever sent to a major tournament - and we still finished second last. Indisputable, of course, but it's only when you examine how the other nations at the finals prepared for the World Cup that you realise Ireland is still in the ha'penny place in terms of the resources invested in the players ahead of tournaments and, most importantly, the time given to them to prepare.

If practice makes perfect then it's little wonder that the gap in the standard of hockey played by Ireland and Argentina, who won the World Cup on Sunday, and the basic skills displayed by the players, appeared to be unbridgeably large: the Argentinians, after all, trained every day for the past year (the Dutch have had three days off in the last six months), while the Irish players were largely restricted to weekend training sessions.

The difference, of course, is that the leading hockey nations hail from countries where the sporting motto appears to be: "competing is nice, but winning medals is much, much better".

Hence the Dutch international players receive the minimum wage (plus a car) to allow them to go full-time (and a €3,200 award to each player for taking silver); the English players are funded by their lottery, so that they can give up their jobs ahead of major tournaments; the Australians benefit from quite magnificent facilities and ample funding to allow them go full-time, and the players from almost every other nation at the tournament are full-time hockey players for at least six months before a tournament.

Irish players meet at Belfield for a few hours at the weekend, before going back to their jobs. How do you compete with that?

"There is an IHA strategic committee working on finding solutions to all of this, but I don't think you can wait, we've been waiting too long for changes, it should be done now. And decisions made now," said Kuper.

"All our opponents were professional or semi-professional so there is no wonder that their skills are better and their sheer physical presence so much more impressive. They train harder, start their build-ups earlier, their structures are better from top to bottom. That is what we are up against."

Kuper's blueprint for the future of Irish hockey will ruffle plenty of feathers at home. She sees little value in schools' hockey, where she believes the coaching simply isn't good enough, and wants young players to play for clubs rather than their schools; she views the interprovincial tournaments as pointless exercises, other than being pleasant social occasions; and, if she had her way, she would take her panel of players out of club hockey for the bulk of the year and arrange for them to play against better quality opposition (e.g. top European club sides).

"I've been talking for years about a national league, about too many players being spread over too many clubs. They play in isolation and train at a very low level, so they don't gain anything there. We need good coaching, of course, and just more hours on the pitch. Some of our players train only two hours a week, half the time without the ball.

"The top nations' internationals train 20, 25 hours a week, over the whole year, the regular club players train six or eight hours a week - that's the difference."

"Yes, I know, these ideas aren't popular with some in Ireland, but we have to decide, do we want to seriously compete at this level? If we do, then we must make big changes - and now. If we're happy with the way things are then okay, forget about it.

"But I have a group of young players who have learnt so much from this tournament, who are so determined to become better players, hungry to achieve things, desperate to take Ireland to a higher level. After Christmas they go back to playing club hockey, at a standard that is just too low.

"They won't forget what they learnt here, but it makes it so hard for them. They have learnt in the past few months that the international sporting life is a different life to that of the regular hockey player in Ireland. We must do something, and stop talking about it."

While there were weaknesses in every department of the Irish team at the World Cup, it was the defence, naturally the most vulnerable at this level, that most looked out of its depth, with strings of unforced errors gifting opponents goals.

Kuper, though, must share some of the blame for the past fortnight's disappointments, such as her reluctance to make dramatic changes when desperately required and her largely conservative selections.

She is, though, still the best coaching option for the Irish senior team, at least until the Olympic qualifier.

"I didn't give the last few years of my life to finish second last at the World Cup," said one senior player on Sunday, "but that's not Riet's fault, she's up against countries that are so much better prepared than we are. If she goes, I go, simple as that. Bringing in a new coach would be like starting from zero."

And that's the truth.

Argentina celebrate winning the Women's World Cup in Perth.