By Gerard Mulreaney @gerardmulreaney)
Cork City’s Women’s National League side claimed their first ever trophy at the end of last season when they won the FAI Cup at the Aviva Stadium, when they produced a superb defensive display to beat UCD Waves 1-0.
This year Frank Kelleher‘s side will be looking to improve on their fifth-placed finish in the league last season.
I caught up with Frank as he looked forward to the beginning of a new Continental Tyres Women’s National League season, and we also discussed their tremendous FAI Cup success.
First off the cup final win came on the back of the men winning the double, so how much confidence will that victory be for his side to improve this season, similar to what the men achieved after their cup final win in 2016? Kelleher said, “The FAI cup win has given the club great confidence. This season we must look to push on. Winning the league is based on a lot of factors. We will be more competitive and see where that takes us.”
The league kicks-off on Sunday March 11th with an away game against Billy Cleary’s Galway side and the Cork City manager is looking forward to it, “Very much looking forward to the league starting. It will be very competitive this season. We are hoping to improve our league position from last year.”
“Preparations have gone very well. We have been back for 7 weeks now and will have a 10-week pre-season. We also have played a number of preseason friendlies to have a look at some of our new players,” Kelleher continued.
During the off-season Cork City WFC, previously a separate entity, merged fully with Cork City Football Club. The FAI Women’s Cup winners affiliated to FORAS ahead of the 2014-15 season, fully joined forces with the men’s teams under the banner of Cork City Football Club.
Commenting on these developments, Pat Lyons, Chairman of Cork City and FORAS, said, “We had been working more and more closely with Cork City Women’s FC since they affiliated to FORAS in 2014, and that process has now culminated in a full merger. The ethos of FORAS is to support and encourage football at all levels in Cork, and the merger of the Women’s team into the club is another positive step in that respect.”
Speaking about that merger Kelleher told me, “We are now part of a professional football club and that will make a big difference in all aspects of how we operate this season. Already we have had more sponsors wanting to get involved. The benefits will be huge long term for our women's team.”
Talking about the squad he’s assembled for the new season Frank said, “We have brought in 5 new players which has strengthened the squad in key areas. A number of players have retired due to work commitments and they will be missed, however I’m very happy with the current squad for 2018. The squad now has great belief in their ability to match any team in the league on any given day. They are hungry to keep improving which is a great trait to have.”
The likes of Peamount United and Shelbourne have strengthened their squads hugely in the search for major honours but Frank says he’s only interested in his own team, “Yes other clubs have made big signings, however we will only focus on ourselves and challenge every team in every game.”
His ambitions for the season? “Realistically to improve on last year. Win a competition and be very competitive in the league campaign. Those are our goals for the season.”
Ahead of their game with Galway the club announced that defender Ciara McNamara would captain the team for the 2018 season.
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