THE REPUBLIC OF Ireland Women’s team are now under pressure to deliver success.
That’s the prevailing sentiment.
In the wake of Vera Pauw’s departure as head coach following the World Cup, and the nature of the fallout, all that goodwill and wholesomeness has been replaced by a ruthless expectation to provide results in a manner they believe they are capable of.
Just how will they cope?
How could a group of professional footballers – with Ballon D’or nominee Katie McCabe as their captain – possibly deal with those demands?
This narrative that has taken hold, that this will somehow be something new for them to contend with, is bizarre.
It’s an example of a patronising undercurrent coming to the fore as critics take aim in this debate.
Pressure is exactly what the Ireland players want, it’s what they thrive off and away from the headlines of Diane Caldwell’s comments earlier this week, the crux of her point was missed; that she is striving for more pressure, more demands and more expectation by working within a more professional and demanding environment.
If you’ve been to an Ireland international match at Tallaght Stadium, or even watched on TV, you will know that there will be nothing other than excitement and positivity in the stands for Saturday’s historic Nations League opener with Northern Ireland at Aviva Stadium.
This group of players – granted there has been some change in personnel since Australia – remain an inspiration.
Caldwell’s critique of Pauw and assertion that success was achieved ‘in spite of’ her methods piqued the ire of many.
“We just need to raise our standards in all levels of performance on and off the pitch,” the 97-times capped international said. “Expectations of ourselves and expectations of staff.
“Increase the levels of professionalism across the board, in every facet, be it match analysis, opponent analysis, performance, nutrition, recovery, everything across the board to get the best out of us as players and a group on the pitch.
”I think there are many areas that could have been better under her tenure,” Caldwell continued. “The same performance factors I just mentioned. Preparation for games could have been better, physical preparation, opponent analysis, match tactics, in-game match tactics, changes, systems of play.”
These were not the words of someone looking to coast along out of the spotlight.
And why would we expect anything less?
Caldwell spelt it out that she and some of her teammates felt that not enough work was being done – so if that brings an added pressure then surely they will be even better equipped to cope?
If those criticising her – and others in the Ireland squad for not providing phoney platitudes to Pauw – still don’t take the women’s game seriously enough to consider that they always play with a pressure to be successful than that simply highlights their own prejudice.
The tone of the reaction has ranged from misogynistic to simply ill-informed.
“The cheek of them.”
“Who do they think they are?”
“Oh, they’ll have to back this up now.”
“They’ll have to do something special now.”
“The pressure is on now.”
Exactly.
That has always been the point, be it looking for basics in a press conference in Liberty Hall in 2017 to now, delivering their assessment in a review into their first-ever participation in a World Cup.
Saoirse Noonan was one of those players left at home when the squad travelled Down Under but the 24-year-old has returned under interim manager Eileen Gleeson.
“Sport changes so quickly. You have to come back and fight for your spot. There is no point being upset, you’re only going to jepordise your own career. Your football career is not long. I want to strive to be my best. Getting the call to come back is like a sense of people seeing how much effort and work that is going in,” she explained earlier this week.
“Growing up, you don’t know if you’re going to make it [as a professional] or then have a career and a living out of it, and that’s scary when it’s all you want to do. Things can change in a flick of a switch…
“Everyone has standards and if you go into any club, if you go into men’s Premier League club, they are going to find things they’d want to change. Everyone is going to voice their opinion and that’s only right.
“Everyone should be heard and will have their own views. We have to move forward and try to improve as best we can.”
The Ireland players only want better, they demand better and they put pressure on themselves to be better.
Pauw was an instrumental figure, clearly, but was she the pivotal one?
What if Courtney Brosnan didn’t save Caroline Weir’s penalty in Glasgow and Ireland had to go chasing the World Cup play-off against Scotland?
Talk about pressure.
Fine margins deliver the greatest reward, and all that.
History is written by the victors so it’s not Pauw’s alone to control.
