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Ed Joyce closed out his time in charge of the Ireland Women’s team when his team beat Scotland in an incredible ODI in Lahore.  

The former international oversaw a coming-of-age period in the women’s game when we saw the playing group go professional and join the Women’s Championship. There were memorable days with big wins bringing a new generation of players to the forefront of Irish cricket.  

Six years is a long time to be in a coaching role and Joyce decided in advance of the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers that it was time for a new voice to take over. That tournament didn’t go as he or the team would have wanted but the advancement of the team was clear for all to see in the way they were able to push every team close.  

Dave Sihra caught up with Ed to find out what he looks back on with pride and what comes next.  

There were some massive days during your tenure, and it must have been brilliant to see some incredible younger talents developed under your watch. How proud are you of your time in charge? 

Ed Joyce: I’m very proud and I loved doing the job for almost the last six years. We had some big days, especially in the last six to 12 months. I think the squad has really pushed on and some younger players have come in and made their mark on the team and really pushed the whole squad onwards.  

There are two main things that stand out to me. The first was when we went from a mainly amateur team to a far more professional set up both in terms of coaches and staffing as well as the playing squad. We currently have a good number of full-time players in there which is great, and we’ve been trying to push that on.  

The second thing is the change in the personnel in the squad. We’ve lost some big players over the last couple of years and replacing them has obviously been very tricky. But with the younger players who have come in, that hunger and the desire to play in this team has been really clear from the outset. They’ve made their mark in a massive way over the last 12 to 18 months – so that’s been great to see. I’m really proud of the part that all the staff have played in that. It’s the big reward for coaches to see players performing at the biggest stage and lots of players have done that. 

How proud are you of this group of players? 

EJ: The same again, I’m super proud. It’s very difficult to make that change from being largely amateur and training once or twice a week to where we are now. We’ve asked a huge amount of the playing group in terms of improving physical fitness, lots of stuff around nutrition, being more professional. The time commitment, especially for players who are still in education is very difficult.  People might not realise from the outside that some of these players are still in college or school and the commitment they’ve shown is incredible. But we need that from them to keep the standards of the squad high, and they’ve delivered. 

So, I’m extremely proud of the group. We’ve had a change in leadership as well. Laura [Delany] did an incredible job for so long and has largely led this side for the time I’ve been in charge. Now, Gaby [Lewis] has come in and really made her mark. So that is really a testament to those two players in terms of their leadership and the huge impacts they’ve had on the team.  

Ireland recently played their final match of the ODI championship. How do you reflect on the team’s journey from that first game? 

EJ: I think it’s been a very tough first-ever cycle for us in the ODI Championship. We’ve lost far more games than we’ve won, but I think we were aware how that was almost certainly going to be the case for us going into it. It was always going to be a learning curve. We want to win every game we go into, but we’re aware of the teams we’re playing against. The majority of those teams have far more resources, far more playing numbers than we do and a lot of the Championship was learning what we need to do to be competitive in the next cycle.  

Looking back at the last 12 to 18 months we have had some really notable wins. The players have a lot of belief there in terms of what they can achieve when they put in the hard work. They now have that belief that they can actually get wins against these top teams. Beating Sri Lanka and England was huge for us, as was beating Bangladesh away. I know it was a T20I series but beating them 3-0 away was really a fantastic effort. There’s a real realisation among the team that they’re very talented and the sky’s the limit, really.  

We’ve had a huge number of changes in the team. I look back at that first game we played against South Africa at home at the beginning of this Championship. We had a very different team and lots of players acquitted themselves well against a really, really good team. But it’s fair to say that was a very tough series for us and the sort of youth that have come in since have shown there’s huge ability there. We have had a lot of players go into the team through this Championship cycle and hopefully there will be a bit of stability from that going into the next.  

What’s something you feel you’ve learned yourself from this group? 

EJ: That’s a very tricky question because I’ve learned an enormous amount. I mean, my own coaching journey only really began when I took on this team. As they’ve developed, I’ve developed in a very similar way – you learn as you go along.  

I think probably the biggest thing for me is planning. The players have needed that because a lot of them are in school and college and need to be able to plan their lives six to 12 months ahead.  So, one of things we try to do is look ahead and make sure we plan and that can be planning training sessions or working on the next training block. Or we’re looking ahead at the next tour and trying to make sure we’ve everything in place for that as well. That’s something I wouldn’t have necessarily done in the past, mainly because if you’re a full-time professional, you don’t feel you maybe need to do as much as a team. With this group, it’s definitely something we needed to do. Going into future coaching roles that planning bit has been incredibly useful and something I’m sure I’ll use going forward. 

You’ve been involved with lots of teams in the past as player and now as a coach, how closely do you generally follow a team afterwards?  

EJ: I’ll definitely be following this team. I’ve already said to a lot of the staff and players that I’m really looking forward to seeing the team from the outside. Obviously, I’m hugely invested in how they do because of my connection to them. But I’m really looking forward to going to games this coming summer and watching from the outside to see how the team progresses and develops. Because it’s such a young group and the sky is really the limit for them.  

I think they’re very aware that they need to keep pushing on to keep progressing because nothing ever stands still. All the other teams are going to get better as well – so they need to do that too. I’ll be watching on very closely for, well, hopefully for the rest of my life, because I really am connected to the team. I still would love to work with the girls in some capacity as well – I’ve said that before. I’ve loved coaching them. You know, I’m very happy working in the men’s game or women’s game, wherever it is whether it’s part-time coaching role – I’d still love to do that. But yeah, I’ll be hugely invested in the team. 

What’s next for you? 

EJ: I don’t actually know is the answer to that, being perfectly honest. There are a few family things going on – so you know that time will certainly help, and I’ll take a bit of time off. But shorter-term roles do interest me a bit. My main interest is in Irish cricket getting better and improving so I would love to stay involved in that somehow. So, the honest answer is, I don’t know what’s next, but I won’t be doing very little for very long.