Renewed focus for Brennan
TEAM CAPTAIN ON SLIGO’S AIM TO IMPROVE RESULTS:
IF THERE ever was a team that needs to turn a corner it is the Sligo Ladies Footballers. 2020 was certainly the year to forget. Sligo, into their second term of manager Micheál Bohan’s tenure, had already registered five losses in their Lidl National Football League campaign when the season was paused because of Covid-19.
Then, having dealt with the unprecedented disruption caused by Covid-19 – the lockdowns and restrictions – Sligo found that, when the season resumed, their losing habit had followed them into the LGFA’s All-Ireland Intermediate Championship. Three more defeats followed. By big margins, too.
With Sligo’s 2021 Lidl National Football League beginning this Sunday – Sligo are away to Down in a Division 3A fixture – the slate has been wiped clean. The reset button has been pressed.
The appointment of a new manager – Tourlestrane’s Anthony Brennan – is the first hint that the tide could turn. Brennan’s management CV, chiefly in Gaelic football, is a successful one. Usually the teams he takes charge of win things. Simple as. And, if a positive portent was needed, Sligo LFGA’s previous managerial appointee from Tourlestrane was a certain Paddy Henry – who guided the county to an All-Ireland Junior Championship in 2006 and a NFL Division Three crown in 2015. Sligo LGFA’s 30-strong Intermediate squad features familiar names, calibre players who have proven themselves in the past – players who, for one reason or another, weren’t part of last year’s malaise. Team captain – once again – is Nicola Brennan, whose dad, Anthony, is Sligo’s new shot caller along the sideline. Away from the ups and downs of Ladies Football, she has had to deal with the new normal brought about by Covid-19 restrictions – various lockdowns prevented her from working as a fitness instructor/personal trainer.
Not working properly since last March has been a burden but the upside was that Brennan got to spend more time with her daughter.
She hopes to organise outdoor classes soon having already used Zoom.
“It would be great to get back having classes as normal either next month or in July. I have hope that I will get back to where I was,” she stated. “I spent eight years building up the business and a reputation in what is a competitive field. It was really daunting last year when things shut down.”
“At the time even for the business to be closed for two weeks was terrifying. Little did I know it would go on for over 12 months but I’m not the only one to have been in this situation.”
With all this going on in the background, getting stuck in to a new season of playing for Sligo is the kind of distraction she is looking forward to.
Brennan emphasises that she and her younger sister Sarah, who is also part of the county panel, will be encouraged and admonished by the new manager – the same as everyone else.
THERE is hope and determination in the group, as well as skill according to Brennan. “Players have returned to the panel, players with a lot of experience, and there are others who are getting their first taste of what this level is all about – these newcomers are extremely talented.”
“Last year was a tough grind for the panel, both mentally and physically, in terms of the results that we were getting. We had to persevere.”
“It was an awful tough year to go through [without winning] and it kept getting worse and worse. We just couldn’t get out of the lull we were in, no matter how hard we tried.”
Brennan reckons that approximately half of last year’s squad have returned for 2021 – anxious to show that they’ve learned something from eight games without victory.
She continued: “The current management have made sure that the group is gelling. It would be a big thing to go to Down and get a result there.”
“We have put 2021 to bed. We never want to have another year like that. I know the management won’t allow that – previous standards won’t be acceptable in the set-up we have now.” With three games in Division 3A – Sligo are away to Down and Fermanagh followed by a home game against Roscommon – the margin for error is limited.
Finishing either first or second will earn a semi-final place. But being the worst team in this four-team section puts them into a relegation play-off against the bottom side from Division 3B (which features Longford, Laois, Wicklow and Kildare).
But Sligo aren’t thinking about relegation or promotion. Right now they want to play well, compete and get winning again.
With the Brennans involved, as team captain and team manager, Sligo LGFA aim to have a year to remember.
Sligo Ladies Football squad: Lauren Boles (St Michael’s); Nicola Brennan (c), Katie Walsh, Sarah Brennan, Leonie Gaughan, Tara Walsh, Sarah Cunney (Tourlestrane); Keighleigh Cawley, Ciara Gilroy, Aoife Gilroy (St Mary’s); Rachel O’Brien, Jacqui Mulligan, Claire Dunne, Leah Kelly, Aishling Molloy (St Farnan’s); Aoife Morrisroe, Jade Lyons (Shamrock Gaels); Denise McGrath, Ciara Gorman (St Nathy’s); Hannah Walsh, Megan Davey, Sarah Reynolds (Geevagh); Leah
Gannon (CT Gaels); Emma Kevany (St Patrick’s); Laura Ann Laffey (Coolera-Strandhill); Megan McCormack (Eastern Harps); Sinead Regan, Rachael Quigley, Michelle McNamara (Drumcliffe-Rosses Point); Sinead Naughton (Eoghan Rua)