‘We wanted to bring football to every corner’ – Coerver and CWSSL launch five-year plan for the girls’ game

The Cork Women’s and Schoolgirls Soccer League (CWSSL) announced their major new partnership with Coerver Coaching, the globally recognised football development programme earlier this month, and the hope is that it will be a landmark moment for girls’ football in Cork.

The five-year agreement will see Coerver, led by Tim Mawe and former Cork City striker Denis Behan alongside Derek Coughlan, deliver a structured player-development framework across the county.

The plan includes weekly girls-only academies, 3v3 development events, and talent ID days designed to give every player, regardless of club or location, access to professional-level coaching and a clear pathway into Cork representative squads.

For Behan, who has been a key part of Coerver’s growth across Munster, the partnership is the next logical step in a project that’s been building quietly for years.

“We've been looking at the girls game for a long, long time,” Behan begins. “Obviously, we brought Derek [Coughlan] into the group just over a year ago now. We've seen the growth in the girls game, but also we see what we can add to that setup.

“When we went in with the Cork U17s, we wanted to give experiences and we wanted to give opportunities for the girls that they probably wouldn't have got before.” 

That ambition to expand opportunity is at the heart of the initiative. Coerver’s coaching network already works closely with a number of clubs in Cork, and the move to partner directly with the league allows the methodology to reach more players than ever before.

“We're heavily involved with a lot of clubs in our partner club side, and we see the growth in the girls game.

“Then the natural next step then was obviously being able to take it to the league setup where we can give 3v3 experiences, we can give experiences in clubs and events in clubs outside of Cork that they probably wouldn't get before,” he explains. “And then with the league, with Brian [Murphy] and Sean [Murphy], when we came to them and had a conversation around how we could knit it together, it was very simple.” 

The vision, Behan says, is county-wide.

“We wanted to bring football to as many corners of the league as possible. We wanted to give opportunities for talent ID days. We wanted to give opportunities for getting into any of the Cork squads. And it's not just about being in the city.

“We want to look at coach education, because obviously, the coaches want to move them forward. So there'll be coach education nights.

“So within the whole bubble, it was very simple to pull it together. And with the enthusiasm from the league and how they really wanted to grow the girls game, but also grow it in a way that was sustainable.

It wasn't just come, put something on, go away and come back again.

"It was a longer term. And for us to do a five-year deal gives us that bit of opportunity to expose it or to lengthen it out.”

With the CWSSL’s development of Casement Park as a hub for the women’s game getting underway, Behan says the timing couldn’t be better.

“Then when we have Casement, the development that comes here, anything that we can do to help in that development, we will do as well.

“The events, the opportunities that the girls will get, will then hopefully be replicated on the brand new facility that they'll have here as well.”