Unifying player pathway is next step for Irish women’s soccer

With another qualifying cycle behind them, the Republic of Ireland WNT turn their attention to the play-offs for the 2025 European Championship.

The Girls in Green are potentially two games away from the tournament finals, which are scheduled to take place in Switzerland next summer.

By then, almost four years will have gone by since the first set of qualifiers for the 2023 Women's World Cup, the turning point for women’s football in this country.

Or so people say.

The conversation was all about the next generation last summer, and how the team's adventures in Australia will inspire a new group of players.

While this goes on, the current crop of internationals grow older and people are looking for the next 'prospect' to pull on the green jersey.

Eileen Gleason and her coaching team, which includes former Cork City manager Colin Healy, is aware of this based off recent squad announcements.

This allowed the likes of Aston Villa's Anna Patten, Caitlin Hayes, and Aoife Mannion to grow into themselves and become settled in the international arena while easing the burden Louise Quinn and Niamh Fahey, two players with a combined age of 70.

Cork City captain Eva Mangan is in a similar position. 

The 19-year old UCC student was first called up to the senior team for a double header of Euro qualifiers against Sweden, and she returned for July's meeting with England and France.

Mangan is the archetypical 10, a player who operates in between the lines and links up the midfield with those tasked with running forward into the channels. 

Her game is based on, and inspired by Denise O'Sullivan, Cork's most famous footballer in the women's game.

This all sounds like a plan, as if there’s some long term thinking behind regenerating the national team, but that’s not the case.

Ireland have so far been successful in finding the right players for the right positions, either through the grandparent rule or looking in the Women’s Premier Division.

In between those two ways of building a squad, lies a tension surrounding the age profile of those available for selection and what is the best way to make sure young footballers are ready for the senior game.

Ireland have had to look at this while dealing with the emergence of players like Freya Healy and Ellen Dolan, as they recently went from training under Gleeson to representing their country at the U19 European Championship.

The natural solution is an U23s team, even though there isn’t a competitive tournament for that age group. 

Gleeson knows this, the coach made sure to mention this in a recent interview with the Irish Examiner.

“When I came in, they were already up for discussion,” the coach said.

“The home-based sessions started out with one purpose but evolved.

“It was to facilitate a pathway for players to the senior national team. So, a redesign is happening that’s a talent development scheme. 

"That is all being developed in the background, but it will look something different to the home-based sessions.

“The discussion is around the development of the U23s and a mechanism for developing those home-based players.

“It’s not about what I want - it’s a streamlined pathway for players. 

"That’s what the development pathway looks like and is being developed right now.” 

What this will create is a clear link between the U19s and the senior team, instead of throwing kids in college into the international arena without experience.

Some players thrive in such situations, others need a few years to adjust physically and to the pace of the game.

Cork City were a case study in this during the 2023 season as the average age of the starting team for some games was just over nineteen. 

The gap was noticeable on the field of play, as players were routinely out-muscled in possession and decision making in critical moments was poor, which led to a long winless run that ran from March to June.

The Republic of Ireland could easily find themselves in such a situation If players are made step up when they aren’t ready for it, the men’s team went through that process at the start of Stephen Kenny’s tenure and it reflected in an ill-fated UEFA Nations League campaign in 2020.

The option is there – invest in an U23s outfit unify the pathway between the underage squads and those available for senior selection. 

The thing is, the clock is always ticking in football and falling behind could be disastrous for future qualification attempts.