Gavin Cooney

SHAMROCK ROVERS HAVE less dipped their toe than they have plunged back into the women’s game for 2023. Everyone else has been feeling the ripples.

Rovers spent three seasons in the Women’s National League before their withdrawal in 2014, and their return this year has led to a squad-building project that has affected many of their new rivals. 

Aine O’Gorman, Summer Lawless, Alannah McEvoy, Stephanie Roche, Aoibhe Fleming, Lauren Kelly have all joined from Peamount United; Jessica Hennessy and Melissa O’Kane have moved from FAI Cup finalists Athlone Town; another Irish international, Savannah McCarthy, has signed from Galway; while Abbie Larkin, Lia O’Leary, Amanda Budden, Jess Gargan, Shauna Fox, Aoife Kelly have all joined from champions Shelbourne. 

Seventeen-year-old Larkin has already played at senior international level and her departure caused considerable angst at Shels, who released a statement to say they were “disappointed” by her u-turn on a stay at the club to join Rovers while adding they respected her decision. Less respectful was a now-deleted tweet published by Shels the following day, obliquely referring to Larkin’s departure with a line reading, “Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, We’ll keep the red flag flying here.” Shels captain Pearl Slattery later apologised, saying the club got it wrong. 

If Rovers’ recruitment drive has led to any lingering discord, manager Collie O’Neill is impervious to it all. 

“As a manager, if you’re not upsetting other managers in the league and signing other players then you’re not doing your job right”, he tells The42. ”It’s part and parcel of it. We have gone about our business to try and attract the best players out there. We have only done our job.

“I met Noel [King, Shelbourne manager] when we were meeting Vera [Pauw], and I asked Noel if he was still talking to me. He said, ‘Why wouldn’t I be? You’ve only done what I have done every other year.’ It’s part and parcel of being a manager.” 

That meeting with Pauw was part of a summit with all of the league’s managers, at which the Irish manager explained the rationale, mechanics and training load of her home-based training sessions, which have been ramped up to a weekly event ahead of the World Cup. 

These camps were introduced by her predecessor Colin Bell in 2017 but they are now a much more frequent exercise as Pauw seeks to assess her options and build depth ahead of the World Cup in July. These sessions mirror the international set-up. They are overseen by Pauw and her assistant Tom Elmes, aspire to the same intensity, and are supported by the same staff, including the team doctor, lead physio, and performance analyst. All players are assessed by medical personnel, supplied with international gear and have their performance tracked by StatSports. The sessions occasionally incorporate a friendly game against a boys’ team from the League of Ireland, and the aforementioned Larkin is among the players to have made a senior international debut on the basis of performance at the home-based session. 

“There are good parts and downsides of it”, says O’Neill of these home-based sessions. “You would like [Shamrock Rovers players] them to be with you another night, particularly in the context of trying to build a new team, but they are getting good coaching and good education from the senior international manager.” 

O’Neill previously coached UCD’s men’s team in the League of Ireland Premier Division, and the prospect of building something from scratch with Rovers appealed to him. 

“It’s like a start-up, a brand new company that you re building from the ground up”, he says. “So it’s not just back being a manager, it’s being able to build something into the shape that will hopefully bring success in the future. That’s been the really good part of it.

“Normally you would have to move people out and move people in to build the culture, attitude and mindset you’re looking for. It is much better to do that from the off rather than take three or four years to get to the shape you’re looking for.” 

He does say that bringing a whole squad together will take time, and for that reason believes Rovers may not be competitive at the top of the table come the season’s closing weeks. 

“Once you become the manager of Shamrock Rovers, regardless of who you sign, the pressure is there anyway”, he says. “I don’t think we will have enough time to be fully competitive, as it’s a whole new squad. I think it will be the likes of Wexford, who have only strengthened on top of last year, bringing in likes of Rianna [Jarrett] and Emily Corbet, and teams who have been together for a while and gelled, they will be much stronger this year. They will be the favourites for me, we will try to be as competitive as we can and win as many matches as we can.” 

Rovers’ return to the league begins away to Sligo on Saturday, while their first home game at Tallaght Stadium will be at home to Treaty United a week later.