AT A ONE-OFF women’s development game in Abbotstown last February, one League of Ireland player really caught the eye.
New Ireland head coach Carla Ward came away from it drawing parallels with England’s back-to-back Euros winner Ella Toone.
“Aoibhe Brennan, I absolutely loved what I saw,” Ward told a press conference later in the year, when asked about young players close to inclusion in her squad.
“She plays a little bit like one of the English girls, Tooney. I think she’s got something about her.”
The quote went largely unnoticed at the time, but sprung to mind when the Bohemians teenager received her first senior call-up this afternoon.
Manchester United midfielder Toone is a player renowned for doing the basics at a high level, and watching Brennan as she helped Bohs beat Cork City 3-0 last week, Ward was again struck by the simplicity of the youngster’s game.
“She reminds me of a WSL player… I won’t say who!”
“It’s the way she moves, actually,” Ward told The 42 when asked to elaborate on the comparison. “I said to a couple of staff, ‘Just watch the basics.’ She finds little pockets of space, she makes the basic decisions very, very well.
“Usually, if you know someone’s coming to watch, you try to do a little bit more, [but] that’s not her style. You could see that. I think she didn’t give the ball away once in the first half. She plays in a way that I like, very different to what we’ve got.”
But in that same breath comes a caution.
“Listen, we’re under no illusions, she’s very young, she’s learning. She’s got great potential. So, this is around having a look at her in a different environment.”
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Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
While not a complete surprise, Brennan’s inclusion was somewhat unexpected.
The Clonee native had been named in the Ireland U19 squad for their upcoming qualifiers against Germany, France and Slovakia last week, but the senior double-header against Poland is her new focus.
“I spoke to Keith [O'Halloran],” said Ward. “Keith’s obviously done an unbelievable job with the young players. He was delighted, because ultimately he’s worked with her and knows what she’s capable of. We had a good conversation on how we want to try and progress her. It’s very aligned and there’s an understanding of why she’s coming in.”
The main focus will be to see how she copes in the environment. The warnings have long been sounded of the “massive jump” from the League of Ireland, and underage international level – not helped by the lack of U21 or U23 team – but Brennan is described as someone playing “well beyond her years”.
A technical midfielder, she has been a standout in the Women’s League of Ireland in recent seasons.
Having come through the Shelbourne underage ranks, Brennan crossed for northside city rivals Bohs ahead of the 2024 season. The words of then-manager Ken Kiernan – now Ciaran Kilduff’s assistant at Dundalk – offered a taste of what would follow.
“Aoibhe is a highly technical player with a brilliant range of passing,” said Kiernan, who previously coached Brennan at Shels.
“She is excellent from a dead-ball situation and scored 20 goals from centre midfield this season. She is a versatile central midfielder with brilliant football intelligence. She is one of the best young players in the country.”
That became more and more evident at Bohs, particularly last season as she helped them to their first-ever FAI Cup and All-Island Cup finals.
While both ended in defeat, Brennan scored a stunning consolation goal in defeat to Athlone Town at Tallaght Stadium. She carved an opportunity for herself out of nothing, and unleashed a rocket from the edge of the box.
Three games into the new season, she has played every minute possible, scoring a close-range volley against Athlone on Saturday to make it six goals in 58 appearances, as per extratime.com.
Brennan has also picked up nine yellow cards in her senior career thus far, typical for a gritty player.
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But as Kiernan pointed out, her technical ability, game intelligence and goalscoring threat mark her out.
The latter has been seen in the green of Ireland, too, with the U17s and U19s.
𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐨𝐢𝐛𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 💥
The latest Ireland WNT call up has been scoring for the underage sides for years, here’s a highlight from a must win qualifier against France last April.#COYGIG ☘️🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/ilq8ujSOft
Breakthroughs to the senior set-up have been few and far between in recent years, though.
League of Ireland players like Kelly Brady (formerly Athlone Town, now Crystal Palace), Aoibheann Clancy (Shelbourne) and Ellen Molloy (Shamrock Rovers, formerly Wexford) have been called up by Ward, while Maria Reynolds (Shamrock Rovers) and Jess Fitzgerald (formerly Peamount United, now Hibernian) have trained with the squad, but none have been regular fixtures.
In fact, no domestic player has been capped since Erin McLaughlin’s appearance against Zambia in a pre-World Cup friendly.
Such a scenario seems unlikely so soon for Brennan, but being in the mix alone is huge. Training with the likes of Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan will be brilliant for her development, trying and testing herself in a de facto full-time professional setup.
But you never know.
She is one of an increased nine midfielders in the squad, with Lily Agg and Jess Ziu others recalled who can bring a different profile, as described by Ward.
“We’ve gone with additional players in the middle because of the fact that we might need different things for different moments in the games. I think we’ve had similar players in the middle where, if you wanted to change tact, now we have the option to.”
Aoibhe Brennan, too, is different. Hence the Ella Toone parallels.
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Aoibhe Brennan: Bohs teenager in Ireland squad is already drawing Ella Toone parallels
AT A ONE-OFF women’s development game in Abbotstown last February, one League of Ireland player really caught the eye.
New Ireland head coach Carla Ward came away from it drawing parallels with England’s back-to-back Euros winner Ella Toone.
“Aoibhe Brennan, I absolutely loved what I saw,” Ward told a press conference later in the year, when asked about young players close to inclusion in her squad.
The quote went largely unnoticed at the time, but sprung to mind when the Bohemians teenager received her first senior call-up this afternoon.
Manchester United midfielder Toone is a player renowned for doing the basics at a high level, and watching Brennan as she helped Bohs beat Cork City 3-0 last week, Ward was again struck by the simplicity of the youngster’s game.
“It’s the way she moves, actually,” Ward told The 42 when asked to elaborate on the comparison. “I said to a couple of staff, ‘Just watch the basics.’ She finds little pockets of space, she makes the basic decisions very, very well.
“Usually, if you know someone’s coming to watch, you try to do a little bit more, [but] that’s not her style. You could see that. I think she didn’t give the ball away once in the first half. She plays in a way that I like, very different to what we’ve got.”
But in that same breath comes a caution.
“Listen, we’re under no illusions, she’s very young, she’s learning. She’s got great potential. So, this is around having a look at her in a different environment.”
While not a complete surprise, Brennan’s inclusion was somewhat unexpected.
The Clonee native had been named in the Ireland U19 squad for their upcoming qualifiers against Germany, France and Slovakia last week, but the senior double-header against Poland is her new focus.
“I spoke to Keith [O'Halloran],” said Ward. “Keith’s obviously done an unbelievable job with the young players. He was delighted, because ultimately he’s worked with her and knows what she’s capable of. We had a good conversation on how we want to try and progress her. It’s very aligned and there’s an understanding of why she’s coming in.”
The main focus will be to see how she copes in the environment. The warnings have long been sounded of the “massive jump” from the League of Ireland, and underage international level – not helped by the lack of U21 or U23 team – but Brennan is described as someone playing “well beyond her years”.
A technical midfielder, she has been a standout in the Women’s League of Ireland in recent seasons.
Having come through the Shelbourne underage ranks, Brennan crossed for northside city rivals Bohs ahead of the 2024 season. The words of then-manager Ken Kiernan – now Ciaran Kilduff’s assistant at Dundalk – offered a taste of what would follow.
“Aoibhe is a highly technical player with a brilliant range of passing,” said Kiernan, who previously coached Brennan at Shels.
“She is excellent from a dead-ball situation and scored 20 goals from centre midfield this season. She is a versatile central midfielder with brilliant football intelligence. She is one of the best young players in the country.”
That became more and more evident at Bohs, particularly last season as she helped them to their first-ever FAI Cup and All-Island Cup finals.
While both ended in defeat, Brennan scored a stunning consolation goal in defeat to Athlone Town at Tallaght Stadium. She carved an opportunity for herself out of nothing, and unleashed a rocket from the edge of the box.
Three games into the new season, she has played every minute possible, scoring a close-range volley against Athlone on Saturday to make it six goals in 58 appearances, as per extratime.com.
Brennan has also picked up nine yellow cards in her senior career thus far, typical for a gritty player.
But as Kiernan pointed out, her technical ability, game intelligence and goalscoring threat mark her out.
The latter has been seen in the green of Ireland, too, with the U17s and U19s.
Breakthroughs to the senior set-up have been few and far between in recent years, though.
League of Ireland players like Kelly Brady (formerly Athlone Town, now Crystal Palace), Aoibheann Clancy (Shelbourne) and Ellen Molloy (Shamrock Rovers, formerly Wexford) have been called up by Ward, while Maria Reynolds (Shamrock Rovers) and Jess Fitzgerald (formerly Peamount United, now Hibernian) have trained with the squad, but none have been regular fixtures.
In fact, no domestic player has been capped since Erin McLaughlin’s appearance against Zambia in a pre-World Cup friendly.
Such a scenario seems unlikely so soon for Brennan, but being in the mix alone is huge. Training with the likes of Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan will be brilliant for her development, trying and testing herself in a de facto full-time professional setup.
But you never know.
She is one of an increased nine midfielders in the squad, with Lily Agg and Jess Ziu others recalled who can bring a different profile, as described by Ward.
“We’ve gone with additional players in the middle because of the fact that we might need different things for different moments in the games. I think we’ve had similar players in the middle where, if you wanted to change tact, now we have the option to.”
Aoibhe Brennan, too, is different. Hence the Ella Toone parallels.
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