LAURIE RYAN WON’T ever forget last weekend.
On Saturday night, she captained Athlone Town to their first-ever Women’s Premier Division title.
The Midlanders wrapped up the league with a game to spare following their 2-0 win over Bohemians, and Ryan lifted the trophy after making her 100th appearance for the club.
The Clare dual star was back in action on Sunday, but there were contrasting emotions as her club Gaelic football team, The Banner, were dethroned in the county championship semi-final.
It ended their drive for five, as well as their bid for an eye-watering 15th title in 17 seasons.
The highs and the lows of sport. Bittersweet symphony.
“It will be our first time in 16 years, not making a county final,” she tells The 42.
“It was tough one on Sunday for us all, but you can’t win forever.”
The defeat was compounded by news that the final will be staged in Cusack Park for the very first time, but Ryan will take solace from her soccer success.
Opposition players congratulated her after the semi-final loss, much to her amusement, with Athlone’s historic win resonating across the country.
“So delighted,” Ryan reflects four days on. “Relieved as well, because we were out in front there for a while, and everyone was chasing us down. Shelbourne and Galway were putting in the biggest fight ever.
“It made it so exciting in one sense, but to have never really been in that position before, it’s just such a relief to have finally won. I was having a few sleepless nights thinking about it. I suppose when we were so close for so long, it meant it was just so special when we finally got over the line.
“To do it at home really added to it as well. We had a great crowd out in Athlone, and to have everyone from the club there that has been involved just makes it extra special.”
So, too, did becoming an Athlone Town centurion. A landmark appearance that will live long in the memory. “It was a bit surreal,” she smiles.
“I was looking back at it — I was giving everyone their medals and I don’t even think I believed what was going on. It was one of those things that you’ll never forget. All my family were there, and it was just such a special evening.
“We’ve soldiered for a while in Athlone to get to this point. There’s a lot of people in the league that have never managed to get there, and they’ve probably been fully deserving of it as well. When you finally do get over the line and get that win, it means so much, especially with the group we have this year. We’ve had a lot of injuries and setbacks. It was just so special.”
Athlone’s rise has been remarkable, really. Five seasons after joining the league in 2020, they are champions of Ireland.
Their successful FAI Cup run last year truly instilled belief that they could compete at the top, but others may have questioned the league credentials of Ciarán Kilduff’s side after a fifth-placed finish.
“No one really had given us a chance, if we’re being real about it,” Ryan says. “A lot people wouldn’t have even had us in their top three coming into the season.
“We had a poor league last year. Obviously, we’d won the cup so it wasn’t like we were total outsiders, but from within us, we felt like we didn’t do ourselves justice last year so we wanted to prove that we were better than that. There was a sense of determination within the group.
“Everyone bought into it and got on board. Whatever Ciarán asked of us, we did. He was amazing, he has won things before and has been involved in successful dressing rooms, so there’s that level of trust with him as well that he knows what he’s doing. Every day he’d be like, ‘You only have however many minutes of football left this year, make them count.’”
Midfielder Ryan has been instrumental for Town since returning to football in 2021, immediately making her mark in the country’s top league.
She has balanced it with inter-county and club football through the years, but Athlone has taken precedence of late as their whirlwind journey ramped up.
“It’s been mad. I just started playing because I got a job up here. It’s funny how things happen,” the TUS Midlands lecturer says. “Just to see the growth in the club… when I first came in, we were getting beaten quite heavily and found it hard to get any wins.
“To see the turnaround, not only with our own team, but our underage teams are now competing for the U17 and U19 cups, it just shows that there’s an attraction there for local girls now to come play for Athlone rather than go to the Dublins or Galways and that’s great. I think that’s probably the biggest pleasing point of it all, there’s a pathway now for girls to actually come in and compete for leagues and titles and cups. That’s what you want.
“Personally, it’s crazy to think that when I joined four years ago, that we’d be winning the league. I actually said it to my partner the other day, ‘Jesus, I never could have imagined this when I was here the first year, because it was such a slog.’ When you’re getting beaten heavily week in, week out, or barely getting results, it’s hard to stick with it. A lot of the team did, and they got their rewards now.”
While Athlone round out the league away to Galway United on Saturday, they contest their third FAI Cup final in a row against Shelbourne at Tallaght Stadium the following weekend.
The dream double is on — or treble, having won the President’s Cup against Peamount United in March.
“I always say cup final day is the best day of the year,” Ryan concludes.
“Obviously, we know the quality Shelbourne have, and you can even see in recent weeks, they’ve really hit form. For us, we want to go up and give a good account of ourselves and be really competitive. The last two years have been really good games, so hopefully this one’s no different.
“Because we had the two weeks, we were able to celebrate on Saturday as a team, which was really nice, but we wanted to get back on track and give it the respect it deserves.”
