Paul Fennessy

WHEN THE PREMIER Division kicks off later this month, it will mark 15 years since women’s football in this country went national.

In that short time, both the league and the sport have come a long way.

Just six teams competed in that first campaign, which ran from November 2011 to April 2012, with each team playing 15 matches.

Peamount United, Castlebar Celtic, Cork Women’s FC, Raheny United, Shamrock Rovers, and Wexford Youths were the sides involved, with Bray Wanderers/St Joseph’s pulling out close to the start of the season owing to a lack of competitive players.

It became a two-horse title race between Dublin sides, Raheny and Peamount, with the latter prevailing by three points.

The adaptation period was hardly seamless, and the quality gap between teams was at times stark – Peamount registered home and away scores of 13-0 and 9-0 against Castlebar in that opening campaign.

But ultimately, it’s hard to argue against the notion that setting up the Women’s National League (as it was originally known) is among the most important developments for the sport in this country.

Previously, the FAI Cup (established in 1975) had been the only major competition that allowed women’s club teams to compete at a national level.

Without the league, it is tough to imagine other breakthrough successes, such as the national team qualifying for the 2023 World Cup.

While the elite invariably move abroad (usually to England), the majority of national team players got their start in the domestic league.

That first WNL season included Denise O’Sullivan, Louise Quinn and Stephanie Zambra, all of whom would go on to win 50-plus caps for Ireland.

The league helped kick-start a new era when people in this country began taking women’s football more seriously, with increased media, marketing and investment contributing to a surge in popularity.

Seana Cooke, who played for Raheny at the time, remembers a push for football to become more “standardised”.

Beforehand, in the Dublin leagues, players would turn up and warm up half an hour before kick-off in a local park.

Crowds consisted of players’ families and friends, and “a few dog walkers”.

Teams, if they were lucky, would train twice a week, and turnout would sometimes be low.

Players were responsible for washing their kits, and they might get a tracksuit. One pair of boots was expected to last.

Now, measures such as arranging communal breakfast or lunch before away trips were being introduced. Buses were put on to transport players.

There was a genuine backroom staff at a club, rather than just the manager, as had often been the case previously.

Rebecca Creagh, another Raheny player at the time, adds: “You’re playing on these regulated pitches. We were playing at Morton Stadium, which was unheard of; that was a big deal in itself. You’re coming into that setup where you had the capacity for spectators to come and watch you, and people were taking a little bit more notice.”

Raheny United's Rebecca Creagh lifts the FAI Cup in 2014. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

Players turning up for matches hungover became a less common sight as more professional standards were implemented. Training and preparing for matches also became more rigorous.

But despite the excitement at the time and the progress it would ultimately make, not everyone was wholeheartedly backing the concept of a women’s national league.

Cooke, who was used to higher standards, having spent time in Arsenal’s academy, credits former Ireland manager Sue Ronan as a notable exception, who was always pushing for initiatives such as the inception of a national league.

“She was really powerful in ensuring that there was a home-based presence in the national team during her time,” Cooke tells The 42. “It was something that she wanted to leave in her legacy. And I don’t think she gets the credit that she deserves, because a lot of work had to go into that.

“And there were a lot of great volunteers who gave up their time. It was a full-time job to build on these plans and put the clubs in a place where they could be formally recognised by Uefa to compete in the league.”

Others, however, seemed less enthused by the prospect.

“I think there were people within the FAI that didn’t have the appetite or the interest, probably saw it more as a financial burden,” says Cooke. “‘Why are we doing this?’ I think it still exists to a lesser degree in football now. The ‘they’re going to go off to England anyway, if they’re good enough,’ attitude. 

“And then from the club’s perspective, the financial costs of going from competing locally to, one week having to go to Castlebar, to the next week having to go to Cork.

“Coaches had to have certain badges. You had to make sure that you had physios and doctors. So, these costs for the clubs would have been completely new.

“So people were wondering whether the financial pressure involved would be viable.

“I think it was mainly [a concern] for those outside of women’s football, the people who were involved in playing and could see the talent and the opportunity, believed in it. But I think around women’s football as a whole, it was like: ‘We’ll never compete with England. Why are we even trying to create something if we’re never going to get there or be able to compete with the leagues that they have?”

Creagh adds, “It probably always will come back to funding and facilities, and it would have been a huge investment for clubs back then; the women’s side of clubs didn’t have that interest, and people weren’t that invested. And I think it was only at that time that the likes of the FAI Cup weren’t made a big deal of. It was just another token final. 

“A lot of the women’s teams didn’t have those academies and underage setups to filter through to provide for these senior teams, and that has massively grown and changed across the country.” 

Seana Cooke pictured playing for Raheny in 2012. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

In those early days, Cooke’s unforgiving schedule involved 6am starts and a non-football job, which would have been true for the majority of those involved.

“It was sometimes getting home at eight in the evening and going straight to do some bar work, to make some money,” she remembers.

The situation has not changed dramatically in that regard – professional contracts were introduced by the league in 2022, but they remain the exception.

As of last October, The 42 found that Athlone Town had 12 pros on their books, with the remainder at Shamrock Rovers (10), Treaty United and Wexford (one each).

There have been other important developments, too – Creagh mentions the decision to show FAI Cup finals on RTÉ Two and move these games to the Aviva Stadium as significant. These fixtures have reverted to Tallaght Stadium since 2020, but as standalone events rather than a precursor to the men’s final.

Cooke says that teams generally playing in more accessible venues with amenities have helped, as has “more clubs investing in bringing in higher-standard coaches,” increasing the number of technically accomplished young players emerging.

But there is still plenty of work to be done. Creagh lists additional teams, better facilities, investment and attracting “thousands” into stadiums every week as tasks on the domestic league’s to-do list over the next 15 years.

Cooke adds, “I think we need to look at a league that allows female players to spend more time with the ball. We started training three times at the very start of this league. Last year, most teams were training three times. Very few teams trained more than that. And so, we have to get to a level where girls, from a younger age up, are training every day. And to do that, the funding has to be there to cover the costs, not just facilities, but to pay the players to turn up and dedicate time to it.

“I don’t think we should be aspiring to be paying players multi-million euro contracts, because that’s not feasible. We need an approach that improves the standard of football, and we build out a sustainable plan that we know this league’s going to be here in 15 years.

“I definitely think we need other clubs to step up to the plate, the likes of St Pat’s and one or two others that haven’t made that investment yet.

“I do think there’s an element of it that we are probably going to have to look at going the way the WSL [Women's Super League] has gone in the UK, and it becoming more of a private entity, rather than one driven by the association, for it to grow to the level that we’re seeing in other leagues across Europe. I definitely think it’s possible, and the right people are involved.

“But the issue that we’re always going to have is that we’re behind other leagues in Europe. So I think that’s always going to be an issue for us in terms of trying to get over those conversations or debates about: ‘Is there a point in doing this if we’re never going to catch up to those leagues?’”