ABBIE LARKIN WAS the breakout star of the summer while Tyler Toland knew she had to bide her time to be the comeback kid.
The Donegal native could so easily have been the one heading on that historic World Cup journey with the Republic of Ireland last summer.
Instead, she remained in exile, banished by former manager Vera Pauw after a very public – and ugly – falling out.
Toland played 13 times for Ireland by the age of 18.
Yet a 14th cap only came last month against Northern Ireland. Fitting, too, given Toland became Ireland’s youngest senior international six years previously when she played against the same opposition 43 days after her 16th birthday.
She’s now 22.
That significant first appearance at Aviva Stadium for the senior women’s team felt like a moment of revival for the midfielder, who was awarded the player of the match award and seemed destined for such regular accolades after her exciting emergence.
A move to Manchester City was agreed before she turned 18 and her football world was moving quickly.
“There are frustrations in football, there are ups and downs, you have to enjoy the good times but there is always going to be ups and downs in football, but ultimately, I have that love for football, love the game and I hope to play for a very long time,” Toland said this week.
“You just have to deal with the cards you are dealt with. Keep your head and the tides will turn.”
Larkin, not 19 for another six months, has experienced a similar kind of whirlwind given she was the youngest member of the squad that travelled Down Under.
From Shelbourne to Shamrock Rovers, and now a first move away from home after joining Glasgow City on the back of her growing stature.
“It wasn’t like I was going to force it (a move) or anything. It just came to me, and ‘right it’s going to happen’. I wasn’t looking for anywhere to go. A team just wanted me and I considered it so…,” Larkin explains.
“Last minute, Glasgow came. And I was thinking ‘this could be a good step for me’. I just felt this was the right move for me.”
Toland knows the feeling.
“Where do you want me to start?” she replied when asked about her career trajectory.
That early burst of excitement that led to the move to Manchester City was punctured by a broken shin followed by ankle ligament damage.
A loan move, ironically enough to Glasgow, then led to the chance to develop even further afield with Levante in Spain before returning to England with Blackburn Rovers in the Women’s Championship.
At the weekend she scored a fine breakaway goal, but it came in a 2-1 defeat to Durham Women after international teammate Saoirse Noonan netted a brace.
She knows about taking the rough with the smooth, and despite being only four years Larkin’s senior Toland is well equipped to offer advice to the Ringsend native embarking on life in a new country given her own experiences.
“Enjoy it!” she beamed. “It can be nerve-wracking taking that jump but she has taken the leap obviously, and just enjoy it.
“You are going to learn so much from playing professional football and being on the training pitch. I know you have those nerves and anxiety but you just have to put them to one side and go and enjoy it because that is what we are here to do, to play football and you have to do it with a smile on your face.
“I think it is massively important to play football with a smile on your face because we have the love for the game,” Toland added.
Larkin’s aim this week has been to impress enough in training to force her way into the starting XI and gnaw away at that super-sub tag.
Not that she’s showing signs of feeling bogged down by such thoughts ahead of the Nations League double header with Albania, beginning with the home clash at Tallaght Stadium tomorrow.
“I’m all good. Living in the moment,” she smiles.
