Irish Women's Hockey coach Graham Shaw has called for creative solutions in a bid to push on from the successful World Cup campaign in London.

Ireland claimed the silver medal after being comprehensively beaten by Holland 6-0 in the final but the positives from the tournament could be far-reaching for what is a minority sport in this country.

Asked by Off the Ball's Stephen Doyle after the match in London what can be done to kick-on from the success, Shaw said: "It's difficult - it's a very difficult challenge. The teams we play against spend three, four, five, six days a week training together. We would meet up once a week or once every two/three weeks. 

"It's a difficult challenge and we definitely need to address that. When we get home we need to, somehow, provide the resources and look at how we can get these girls to spend more time together and train together a little bit more regularly.

"Can we close the gap on a country like The Netherlands? Not a chance with the resources we have. Can we close the gap on other nations? Yes we can. 

"But, I definitely think know the sport needs to change. We definitely need to look at and see how we can...we need to be creative in how we can do this. 

"I'm not saying we need millions of investment - that's not what we need because we're after achieving the silver medal without it.

"It's not about money necessarily. It's just about being creative - looking at different opportunities where maybe we can allow these girls to train a little bit more full time," he added.