SHAMROCK ROVERS HAVE confirmed that the club is to launch a senior women’s team and campaign in the Women’s National League in 2023, pending a successful licence application to the FAI.
The new women’s side will be steered by head coach Collie O’Neill, who took UCD to a men’s League of Ireland first Division title in 2018 and has also coached at Shelbourne, Dundalk and Dublin City.
“It’s a great privilege to be at the biggest club in Ireland,” O’Neill said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of delivering on the expectation that comes with managing at such a big club.
“It’s an exciting challenge to put a new team together but it’s made easier by some of the work that has gone into Rovers’ women’s section over the last few years. These players are our future. I’ll be looking to bring an attractive style of play along with an intensity to help us dominate games with and without the ball.”
Rovers already have teams in the U17 and U19 Women’s National Leagues and has recently started a women’s development academy.
The club’s head of women’s football, Jason Carey, added: “My job is to put the best structures and people in place so that the Shamrock Rovers women’s teams can be successful. We want to make a big impact on the game in Ireland and having somebody of Collie’s calibre certainly gives us a great chance to do so. I would like to thank academy director Shane Robinson, U19 men’s coach Aidan Price and the board of SRFC for their support in getting to this point.
Collie is someone who commands a great respect within the game. He has everything we want our first-team manager to be. He has a fantastic pedigree in terms of winning trophies, developing young players and playing a very attractive style of football. We feel that this appointment sets out where the club wants to be in relation to the development of the women’s game in Ireland.
“We are very ambitious about what we want to do here. The facilities and support structures at the club are amongst the best in the country. We have seen what the club has accomplished on the boys/men’s side, and we want to replicate that success in women’s football.”
