PEARL’S A DINGER
Shels skipper Slattery expects exciting battle in league
IN Vicar Street on Wednesday afternoon, as the women’s Premier Division shared the spotlight with the men’s League of Ireland, Pearl Slattery was able to reflect on how far the game has come. The Shelbourne skipper went back to the early days of the national league — which came into existence in 2011 — when a season was launched and nobody might have known.
‘A few years ago, the season would have been launched on a local grass pitch somewhere with about 10 people there, if that,’ Slattery pointed out. ‘So, things are getting better and better every year. You can see that with this launch. The profile’s getting bigger, the standards are constantly rising and I think the league needs to keeping pushing forward with resources. The FAI and the league deserve a lot of credit. The FAI have come on board and are doing their best to make sure that clubs push the women’s game.’
The surge in popularity of the men’s League of Ireland has been a rare good news story for Irish football over the past couple of years. The waiting list for season tickets at Bohemians, the record crowd at last year’s FAI Cup final. And the hope is that can filter down into the women’s league as the women’s national team has been the main positive element in the game here over the past 18 months.
That the likes of Katie McCabe and Abbie Larkin, who were stars of last summer, came from the domestic game only shows the potential of the league here. And over the past few years, it has become a lot more competitive, with the title being decided on the final day in two of the last three seasons.
But the league is still waiting for something to truly grab the wider public imagination. James O’Callaghan, who brilliantly led Peamount to an unexpected league title last season, has termed it ‘a watershed moment’, just as McCabe’s Olimpico goal against Canada in Perth or Amber Barrett’s toe-poke in Hampden Park. A moment that the public can latch onto and be convinced of the product.
‘I suppose we were at a tipping point in Ireland that the team needed to qualify for a tournament,’ Slattery suggests. ‘We have done that now, the public saw the
team at a World Cup and the legacy piece from that now is that the league has to do well off it, and women’s and girls’ football in general. And I think it will, but we need to keep pushing it, need to keep promoting it.’
O’Callaghan feels that the watershed might come with an Irish club going deep into the Champions League. Slattery was part of the Raheny United side that topped their qualifying group ten years ago and got into the knockout stages and was also on the Shelbourne side that narrowly missed out a couple of years ago. A team making that sort of breakthrough will do wonders for the league.
‘That should be the next step, that we will represent the league in Europe and I think teams have represented the league well in the past, we did it at Raheny, Peamount did it a few years ago, we did it ourselves at Shels, teams should be looking at going a little bit further than we have in the past.’
Ireland international Erin McLaughlin was at the launch during the week as the Peamount
representative and she says the league champions are champing at the bit to test themselves in Champions League.
‘I have never played Champions League football, so I can’t wait. And we want to represent the league well, we want to show that Irish clubs do belong there and can compete at that level.’
The Champions League qualifying rounds aren’t until later in the summer, by which stage plenty of storylines will be developing in the Women’s Premier Division.
Shamrock Rovers, in their second season, are likely to be a more cohesive unit and will be in contention for the title, while Peamount will want to keep their hands on the trophy. Athlone appear to be a growing force under Ciaran Kilduff, while Shels will be keen to start on the frontfoot under new manager Eoin Wearen.
TG4 is back on board too, with four live games in April and May. Perhaps something that the league might benefit from is a highlights show, similar to what the WSL has on BBC 1 every Sunday night. But then again, the men’s league has shamefully been without a magazine and highlights show for the past few years, too. Even if people consume sport differently in the social media age, that sort of show makes a difference in the promotion of any league.
And for all the good work that
“Things are getting better and standards are rising” “There are a lot of teams who want to prove a point”
the FAI, and the League of Ireland, have done in showing they care about the women’s game and bolstering its profile, nothing would do that more than an Irish women’s football show. An hour every week that showed the goals of last weekend, that informed the public of the dominant narratives and storylines, and told us the stories behind the leading players in the league.
If the public were finding out about that, they would be more inclined to care. And more inclined to go. Clubs are doing what they can — my local club, Bohemians, have made the three o’clock kick-off on a Saturday their own, while Shels have commandeered 2pm — and had free entry for patrons towards the end of last season. Little things that are making a small bit of difference.
The league doesn’t kick off until the second weekend of March. Teams are continuing pre-season this weekend. There are friendlies organised, all in anticipation of the league. Slattery, a veteran of it, feels it will be the most tightlycontested yet.
‘I think this is going to be the most competitive league we ever had. There are a lot of teams who want to prove a point. We are very hungry after last year, Peamount will want to retain it and there are a few new managers in who will want to make their mark.
‘A lot of the teams are just getting better and better with the players they are adding and that is what you want as a player, you want every game to be competitive. That is what it is now but for us, we won’t look beyond Sligo on the 9th.’