Under their long-time head coach, Ireland women have been more successful than at any time in their history, but he’d rather the side focus on the process than the results
Nathan Johns06-Sep-2024Three years ago, a request to interview Ed Joyce for the first time was met with a friendly warning from Cricket Ireland’s media staff: Joyce, now head coach of Ireland women, was happy to talk, but was reluctant to speak extensively on his own playing career.For plenty among the Irish cricket fraternity, Joyce will always be primarily regarded as perhaps the best pure, technical batter the country has produced. For those outside that bubble, he represents one of English cricket’s great unknowns. In a three-year period from 2012-14, playing for Sussex, he never dropped outside the top ten run scorers in the County Championship. In 2013, he was the fourth-most prolific run-getter in Division One, Gary Ballance and Sam Robson among those above him. In 2014 he finished second, behind only Adam Lyth. All three featured in England’s Test side, on the conveyor belt of top-order batters trialled after Andrew Strauss’ retirement in 2012.His Sussex team-mate, Matt Prior, asked Joyce if he would be open to playing for England again. The only problem was, prior to the 2011 World Cup, he had already recommitted to Ireland, when his England career petered out after just 17 ODIs following the original switch from green to blue.Related
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Upon retiring in 2018, Joyce became a batting consultant. Predominantly working with male players in Ireland’s development pathway, he started working with the women’s side just as their previous head coach left the job. Already on Cricket Ireland’s payroll, Joyce took over in June 2019.Now, five years into his coaching role with the women’s side, their new successes, most recently their ODI series win over Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka, means a new generation of cricket fans primarily associates him with the women’s game.For the first time since Joyce took over as head coach, Ireland will host England for an ODI and T20I series. “I’ve played so much cricket, I didn’t love playing the game [anymore],” says Joyce, on the eve of England’s visit. “I couldn’t go into county coaching or franchise cricket at that stage, but I really cared about Irish cricket. It’s given me a lot; you want to give back. I happened to be there at the time and Cricket Ireland thought it would be a good fit. Sliding doors…”
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This current Joycean arc of Ireland’s development truly got underway in 2022. That summer, devoid of pandemic disruption, professional contracts were introduced. Given the age profile of the young squad, a fair few took part-time deals as they completed their education. As the years roll on and more players graduate, the list of full-time pros grows.Gaby Lewis (left) and Orla Predergast have emerged as linchpins in Ireland’s women’s side under Joyce’s tenure•Getty ImagesSince that contractual turning point, spearheaded by the likes of Orla Prendergast, Gaby Lewis and Amy Hunter, with more regular vital contributions from elsewhere in the squad, Ireland have beaten South Africa, Pakistan, Australia and now Sri Lanka. “The contact time has made a massive difference, that consistency with training,” says Joyce. “You can see progression from session to session, you can map things out and say ‘this is what we’re working on, this is what we’re doing today.’ You can really only do that with full-time players.”It’s the same thing in the gym with strength and conditioning. I’m touching a lot of wood at the moment, but it’s no coincidence Orla [Prendergast] is fit to bowl for the longest period she’s ever had just after she’s become a full-time professional. She’s become a lot stronger, more robust and able to get the loads in training, which actually allow her to play. Hopefully that stays the same way.”
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Inevitably, making progress with the women meant that when the men’s job became vacant at the end of 2021 Joyce was linked with a move across. He took to social media to deny reports that he was a contender. No outlet said as much, but there was an undertone to some of the public speculation that the men’s job was seen as a better gig.”It is offensive to say that’s a step up, they’re both international teams,” says Joyce. “The men’s team undoubtedly has more eyes on it, but not that many more.”It was a running joke with the girls and the support staff: ‘Are you going to go and do that?’ Even if I’d been asked, I wouldn’t have done it. No job is ever finished but I wasn’t even halfway there. It was a non-runner.”The speculation was undoubtedly linked to how Joyce’s playing career influenced his coaching – there is a nostalgic narrative to the old pro returning to coach the current holders of the jersey he once donned. Such curiosity extends to how Joyce, an international and county veteran, adapted to coaching literal children – the likes of 16-year-old Alice Tector – in Ireland’s young squad.With regular captain Laura Delany out injured, the average age of the women’s squad is only 22. Joyce jokingly takes umbrage at being labelled an old pro, but there is an awareness that, compared to the Ireland dressing rooms he once frequented, often filled with grizzled part-time players battered by the challenges of Associate cricket in the noughties, he is now operating in a different stratosphere.Ireland women beat Sri Lanka this year for the first time in an ODI series•Cricket Ireland”You have to be very understanding of the level of experience the players have,” he acknowledges. “If you look at a 21-year-old boy who’s been in a pathway system, and how many games they have played at the top level… the girls just don’t have that [experience]. You see something that seems pretty obvious is out of place [in technique or game play] and you ask the player, there isn’t that knowledge you’d expect from someone in an international team but that’s just the way it is. There’s a lot of teaching, rather than coaching, that goes on.”Maybe at the start or up until the last few years, if you look at video analysis, the girls wouldn’t have known the stuff we were asking them to look for. That’s improved out of sight as well, to the point where we have really detailed conversations with the bowling, batting, leadership group about what’s coming up in a series, who we’re about to face, being able to adjust as the game goes along.”One of the best things we’ve done is try to get the team to coach and communicate with each other. They’re absolutely brilliant at that.”When scoring 1000 runs in a season for Sussex, Joyce probably didn’t have as strong an awareness of the developmental deficiencies in Irish women’s cricket. When asked about his learning curves, he points towards the crucial skill of player management.”I’m still going to sessions and learning from players and other coaches. Selection, that’s evolved a bit. I would always speak to players who are left out of squads or gameday XIs, I think that’s the right thing for the head coach to do. But you can speak too much.”You want to give the player something to hang their hat on: ‘How am I going to get back into the team?’ Sometimes you don’t know how they’re going to get back into the team. Or, the only way is by doing really well, and they say, ‘Well if I’m not playing how am I going to do really well?’ You can tie yourself in knots if you go into too much detail. Sometimes you’re better off saying it how it is.”It’s the same with contracts. I’m heavily involved with those, giving good and bad news to players. Some really bad news, in terms of losing jobs. Sometimes you can speak too much. You just have to get it done. Say it and move on.”Two years ago, Ireland lost a T20 series at home to South Africa 2-1. Given injuries and exam-enforced absences – again highlighting the youth of this side – any victory was almost inconceivable, but Ireland upset the odds in the series opener. Joyce didn’t speak to the press until the end of the series, after the pair of defeats that followed that historic win. Despite back-to-back losses, the overall tenor of the conversation was positive.In 2022, Gaby Lewis (right) at age 21 led an inexperienced side to victory against South Africa in a T20I – only Ireland’s second win against them•Oisin Keniry/Getty ImagesMinutes after the conversation concluded, the head coach returned. Feeling he had been overly critical of his players, a request was made to redo the interview over the phone the following morning.”I’m very protective of the team, I’ve no problem saying that,” says Joyce, looking back. “It’s that awareness that you’re often coaching very young people. It would be the same if it’s on the men’s side – there’s just more experience on the men’s side.”Trying to make sure your understanding is clear, [that the] girls know what’s expected of them, that’s a big one. A good example would be Alice Tector. Alice is hugely talented, she’s done really well, which is why we’ve picked her, but she’s hugely nervous, she’s 16.”How can we expect someone who’s 16 to do well? It’s bonkers. She did great, but it’s that knowledge – that all you can do is expect the players to do their best. I think that’s what I got wrong in that interview, I was probably a bit critical and then I realised when I went back: ‘Were the girls doing their best? Yes. Did we play that well? Not really, but maybe we played to our potential, we’ve just got to get to a higher skill level.'”Listening back to the tape, Joyce needn’t have worried. The closest he came to genuine criticism was a call for his side to play without the fear that was on display during the final game in that T20 series. South Africa spent much of their fielding innings with mid-off and mid-on inside the ring, so lacking was Ireland’s power game.Any lack of bravery appears to have disappeared two years on. Amidst all the positivity though, one significant blot on Joyce and Ireland’s record is the qualifying defeat to Scotland earlier this year, one which cost them a place at the upcoming T20 World Cup. Ireland’s newfound batting aggression saw them collapse to 21-4 in the powerplay, with their hopes of back-to-back World Cup appearances left in ruin.As with all practitioners of modern batting philosophies, overall trends, rather than individual defeats, no matter how crushing, convince Joyce and co to stay their aggressive course. Since the introduction of the contracts, Ireland’s overall batting strike rate has gone up compared to previous years, balls per boundary has decreased while balls per dismissals has increased. Batting average has also gone up.Joyce has reinforced the importance of aggressive batting and more dynamic fielding in the women’s game, given the shorter boundaries•Ramsey Cardy/Getty Images”Scoring ball percentage is a big one for us,” Joyce adds. “Sri Lanka outscored us quite considerably in terms of boundaries but we beat them considerably in terms of ones and twos. When we beat Pakistan (a T20I series victory in 2022), it was more boundaries than ones or twos, whereas I feel like we can do both things now. All the players as well. That’s really pleasing.”Ireland’s increased power is a key pillar of Joyce’s philosophy. Since starting to coach in 2019, he has identified three areas of emphasis in the women’s game, which differ slightly to his own playing days: the heightened importance of fielding, batting power and, perhaps most intriguingly, how targeting the stumps more was a better bowling ploy than in the men’s game.”The game is definitely changing. Franchises, the skill level of the players, the power, the difference of strength and conditioning, the depth. I always think that fielding will be slightly more… it’s very important in men’s cricket, but if you can field well, be dynamic, powerful in the field… [it’s] more important in the women’s game because the ball just doesn’t go as far. It spends a bit more time on the ground.”In the women’s game, with the smaller boundaries, more powerful players are going to take advantage of that. The strength and conditioning stuff is so important. The bowling straight bit, that’s becoming more nuanced. You see more teams bowl cleverly wide of off stump with an offside field and ask less powerful athletes to hit the ball through there.”England have picked Lauren Filer for this series. I’m interested to see how we go about facing her. In terms of being able to play the short ball, can we deal with that and deal with making sure we’re able to play the balls afterwards, if she does go fuller? The short ball is coming into things a bit more even for us, [even though] we don’t have the quickest attack in the world. It’s definitely more nuanced. The stumps are in play but it’s definitely not the be all and end all it possibly was a few years ago.”Talk of Filer brings us back to England’s upcoming visit for the Women’s Championship and then a T20 series. While protective of his players, Joyce is not afraid to let them know when aspirations have not been met. Does a series win over a side like Sri Lanka, as opposed to the one-off victories of the past, allow changing-room chatter to venture towards beating England?”Performance, that’s what we’re looking for. You cannot go into any game thinking we have to win. I’m just looking for performances.””The team is so young that you can influence things so much. There’s so much growth there. As a coach it’s just a dream”•Seb Daly/Sportsfile/Getty ImagesFor once, Joyce’s answer disappoints. Most of the discussion went without clichés. The modern sports psychology approach of being process-driven may have its merits, but it can take the joy out of sporting ambition, of Ireland longing to beat their nearest neighbour. There must be more to this series than that.”If you’re England coming to Ireland I don’t think you’re talking about performance, you’re talking about winning the series,” explains Joyce. “That’s absolutely fair enough. If we were going to the Netherlands – who are not a bad team, they’re competitive against us – I have said to the team ‘I want to beat them 3-0. I’m putting you under pressure here to do the things we want and win the series 3-0. I want us to be dominant against teams I think we can be dominant against.'”If you look at the Sussex team I joined, it was a brilliant, brilliant one-day team. In 2009-11, we went out going ‘We’re going to win every game’. We knew how to do that, we had probably 14 match-winners there and it was just the XI who went out and played. Maybe at a different point with Middlesex, or later on with Sussex, we just didn’t have those weapons, so you’re going out and talking about getting the performance right to have the best chance of winning.”Despite an understandable reluctance to make things about him, Joyce himself cannot help but see the intrigue in how his own playing exploits inform today’s work. How long that lasts, though, remains undecided. His current contract expires early next year. There will be a 2025 World Cup qualifying event thereafter. At this stage, with just two Women’s Championship series left for Ireland this winter, it seems inconceivable he will not be kept on for the qualifiers. For now, Joyce’s expressed motivation remains focused away from results.”It’s clear the team is growing. They’re so young that you can influence things so much. There’s so much growth there, an opportunity. As a coach it’s just a dream.”That Sri Lanka series…I loved how the players spoke. Whoever was player of the match, there was a normality, it wasn’t [a case of being] absolutely overjoyed, it was ‘job well done.’ I loved that.”Acclimating to success to is a new phenomenon for Ireland. Perhaps it foreshadows that development of a process-driven team into a results-driven force, experienced by their head coach during his county days. Maybe Ireland won’t ever be truly dominant, but in Joyce’s tenure so far, they have grown enough that thoughts of one day looking to beat England, rather than just playing well against them, are no longer absurd.