Erika O'Shea can be a huge success down under

MACROOM ladies football chairperson Martin O’Brien is confident Erika O’Shea will be a huge success in Australia.

Macroom and Cork senior football star Erika O’Shea recently joined the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos for the upcoming AFLW season. Martin said all involved with the ladies’ club are delighted for Erika. 

“Erika will be a big loss. We are so proud and delighted for her. She is one of a kind. 

"She has worked so hard to get this far. It is a great opportunity. It was hard to see her leave as she is such a great player for both her club and county. 

"We are very confident she will do great in Australia,” he said.

The club chair said Erika was a great role model for the club and her exploits with club and county helped to attract young players into the club. “She is a great ambassador for the club. She is still heavily in contact with a lot of the players, and she would be sending messages to the club. "She was a great role model. 

"A lot of the young players joined the club because of her influence. They want to emulate her achievements. 

"She was great to call into the local schools, go to underage games, and have a chat with the players.

“She has a great future ahead of her. She is a huge loss to our club this year. She was such a big personality and a key player on the team. 

"We will regroup and hopefully, the other players will rally around and drive it on in her absence,” he added.

Macroom ladies football club is thriving at present. The club fields teams all the way from U8 up to the junior grade said the chairperson. 

“In the last few years, the numbers have gone from 63 to its current number of 160 at both underage and adult level. 

"We are fielding teams from U8 up to junior. We have also registered for Gaelic 4 Mothers and Others so that will probably come on board next year. 

"We have massive numbers at underage level, especially with the U8 and U10 groups. This year we are playing games in the U8, U10, U11, U12, U13, U14, U15, U16, minor, U21, and junior grades. 

"Last year we fielded two junior teams. We could do that again this year, but a few girls have gone travelling so we will field one adult team this year.” 

Mr O’Brien paid tribute to his fellow committee members, club coaches, and local businesses who are all contributing immensely to the great progress they are making both on and off the field. 

“I am very grateful to the rest of the committee members. There is great help there which is so vital. 

"There are a lot of good coaches involved within the club which is great. They work very hard at what they are doing. 

"They are great to work with. The business community rowing in has been so beneficial as well. There is the possibility of another one or two sponsors coming on board with the younger teams as well.” 

The club chairperson said the Macroom GAA Club and the ladies club work ‘very well’ together for the betterment of all the players and club members. 

“We work very closely together with Macroom GAA Club in terms of pitches. They are great to give us the full use of their pitches. 

"There has never been any bother. There are great facilities in the club. We have four pitches, three in Tom Creedon Park and the one main pitch which is great. 

"The pitches are full of players most nights which is great to see.” 

Success at underage level and a fear of losing talented underage players convinced their committee members to re-establish a junior ladies team in recent years. 

Martin said their campaign involved going into schools, a social media campaign, and door-to-door canvassing to recruit more adult players. 

“The ladies club has been going for years but probably on a small scale. We brought the junior team back four years ago as we had a good U16 team at the time who had won a county title. 

"They finished their season in October and the way the structure was set they were not due to play competitively again until the following August in the minor grade. That is how you lose girls.

“I decided to set up a junior team. We set up a post on social media one Friday night and some people were sceptical. 

"We went into schools and went door to door as part of a recruitment campaign. Two weeks later at our first training session, we had 34 players, which included new players and players who had given up previously. 

"We won the league that year in our first time out. There is a nice mix of youth and experience in our current junior team. 

"It is great to see the older girls coaching the young players along who are benefitting from their knowledge,” he added.

Martin is confident the club has a bright future. 

“The town continues to grow which is encouraging for playing numbers going forward. 

"We currently have a number of players playing with the various Cork underage teams such as U14, U16, and minor teams. 

"Things are looking very good at the moment. We will keep driving it on.”