The Irish Hockey Association is facing up to 2013 without two of the key management team that brought them so close to not one but two teams competing at the London 2012 Olympics. 
CEO Angus Kirkland, a good friend to Sport for Business, is leaving in October to take up the position of Director General with the European Hockey Federation while Dave Passmore will step down one month earlier from the role of High Performance Director that he has held for the past 13 years.
Passmore will maintain a lesser involvement in the coaching side but will primarily now be involved in lecturing at DCU.
Kirkland was a professional squash player before spending time in management of the Athletic programme at Harvard University, as Chief operating Officer of the Irish Squash Association and for the last four years as CEO of Irish Hockey.
He oversaw the successful bidding for and staging of the final pre Olympic Qualifying tournament at Belfield in March.  This did an enormous amount to raise the profile of the sport with RTE broadcasting the final live and the team coming within seconds of securing a place in London.
Both men will be missed and there will also be anxiety among other sports governing bodies as a potential merry-go-round of managerial appointments could begin to turn.
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