Aoife Madigan heaps praise on Ballincollig's rugby AIL coaching team

With a high-quality coaching team currently in place at Tanner Park, Aoife Madigan believes Ballincollig have everything at their disposal to make a big splash in the latest edition of the Women’s All-Ireland League.

Taking over from Helen Brosnan, Argentine-Italian dual national Santiago Gonzalez is the new head coach of the club for the 2025/26 campaign.

Having already been part of the set-up under Brosnan, ex-Ireland internationals Laura Guest and Leah Lyons are on board once again in the roles of defence and set-piece coach respectively.

Additionally, Ballincollig are also able to call on the services of Eugene McCarthy (lead coaching player consultant), Christine O’Sullivan (physiotherapist) and Ian Jones (performance coach) – the latter having recently helped the Cork hurlers to reach back-to-back All-Ireland senior finals in his role as head of strength and conditioning.

“Them staying on from last year gives us a huge amount of continuity with the likes of Helen Brosnan leaving. Now we have Eugene and Santi [Gonzalez] in. We still have the new blood of them, but also keeping Laura Guest and Leah Lyons there. Keeping what we had going. So we don’t have too much change in one year,” Madigan explained at an All-Ireland League launch in Energia Park.

“The club have really gone out and brought in some quality coaches. We have everything available to us to go out and play to the best of our ability. Climb up that table.”

A native of Limerick who originally started out playing for Estuary RFC in her native county, Madigan – currently employed as a teacher at Le Cheile Secondary School in Ballincollig – is set to begin a third year with her adopted club.

While they achieved a respectable seventh-place finish in last season’s AIL with four wins and one draw to their name, Madigan acknowledged the Cork side are aiming for some significant steps forward in the current campaign. 

A superior scoring average helped Galwegians to pip Ballincollig into sixth spot at the end of 2024/25 and Madigan is anticipating a tough opening round encounter when the same opposition arrive at Tanner Park on Saturday for a 1.30pm showdown.

“We’re kind of anticipating that their main strengths are normally their forward pack. They’re normally quite strong and they have big ball carriers. 

"We’re going to have to try and nullify that. Get our backs into the game as much as we can and try to move the ball around,” Madigan added.

“The main aim this year is be better than last year and hopefully aiming for that fourth, fifth area in the table.”