Rovers Women - success doesn't come overnight.

One ‘underpar season’ - a year in which The Rovers Women missed out on silverware over the coin toss of a penalty shootout.

A campaign in which The Hoops, with sheer grit and determination, hoisted themselves up the table to inch above last year's champions to secure a respectable 5th place finish.

It should too be noted that this year was the teams second season back in the WLOI - (one point was all that separated the side from a second place finish in their inaugural campaign.)

But this is Shamrock Rovers.

The four in a row giants.

The club who have put the League of Ireland on the map in their European ascendancy.

An outfit with serious business acumen.

A club that declared that they would change the face of the women's game upon re-entering the women's premier division in 2023.

Don't get me wrong, the Dublin 24 HQ fielded a senior women's side with the intention of lifting the game up for all.

And to their credit, they set the standard by offering their players the first semi-professional contracts in the WPD and no doubt invested heavily.

For this they should be commended.

But between the fanfare generated and the ire stoked of their rivals as the Dublin 24 giants swooped to (fairly) nab a number of the league's top drawer players, the pressure dial must have well and truly been turned to the max.

Before that first kick of a ball in their inaugural season, the players were surely all too aware that many were praying for them to fail.

All's fair in love and war - and football.

And so the fact that the team lost only one game in the league in 2023 (in what was undoubtedly a hostile environment) in their first season together was in hindsight, a stellar feat...

As anyone who follows football knows, putting together a group of individually talented players does not guarantee success (just look at Man United in recent years or Man City this season.)

Players need time to develop, gel and become cohesive as a unit.

And to their credit, in that first campaign, against

all odds, they did.

Yet their immediate success in the league in that first season may only have served to increase expectations further.

After all, this is Shamrock Rovers.

Winning is part of the DNA.

Head Coach Collie O’Neill, perhaps sensing the unspoken, was always quick to dismiss talk of titles to the media.

Speaking to The Echo at the start of this season, the foreman was resolute.

“I would have to say first and most importantly our eye is not on any title, it’s not how we operate, we focus on trying to improve day by day with the team as a whole trying to be better this week than what we were last week, that’s how we go about our business.”

Slow start

*************

Rovers' start to the 2024 campaign clearly did not make sense when you looked at the quality of the side.

Drawing the first four league fixtures and losing the next three no doubt left those in the upper echelons scratching their heads.

Having beaten Treaty United 6-1 in the first half of the 2023 campaign and Wexford Youths 2-1, The Hoops found themselves walking away from both fixtures with two points.

Yet it should be noted that their opposition (across the board) had strengthened their squads in the off season.

Anyone who follows the league can see that the talent is growing across the board (think of the Canadian and American players who have travelled to line out across the country.)

Overthinking

*****************

Watching Rovers from the Bird's Eye view of the press box from March to May, I could see that there was a slight hesitancy in our play. We were overthinking. We put ourselves into fantastic positions, only to just fall short of the clinical finish and those much sought after three points.

Was it a lack of confidence? The expectation of playing for a team with such history?

I often sat on the 27 bus post final whistle scratching my own head.

And then…

Rovers roared to life on June 8th with a 4-0 win in the Dublin Derby at Dalymount Park.

The shackles were off.

The gears clicked.

Something had changed.

It was around this time that The Sun reported that a poll conducted amongst the players revealed that the mental side of their game had to be refined.

In response, Rovers drafted boxer Gary Cully to help the players with the psychological aspect to their game.

Speaking to The Sun, O’Neill said: “He came in and spoke to the group about coping with setbacks, how he felt when he lost on the undercard to the Katie Taylor fight, about the gremlins in his mind and how to deal with them. It was great to have him in and it seems to have helped.”

Building blocks

**************************

While Rovers did not replicate last year's blazing performance in the league, it should be noted that they did dispatch league runners up Shelbourne in the Avenir Sports All Island Cup semi-final in the cauldron that is Tolka Park.

The players, in addition, ran RIOT over Peamount in the Quarter Finals of the same competition, beating them 3-0 at home with some absolutely exquisite passages of play and lost narrowly in the league to Galway United and title winners Athlone Town.

Post United's one nil victory over The Hoops I spoke to their wing back Aoibheann Costello.

“They are a very good team,” She reflected. “I don't believe that their position in the table represents their ability. I think they deserve a lot more respect than people are giving them.”

Hear, hear.

The fact of the matter is that teams are composed of human beings.

Donning a Shamrock Rovers jersey does not automatically make a team or a player infallible.

Nor should the expectation be that they are.

I would hate to think that when preparations start for next season, the players feel that they have to somehow prove themselves or their value to those watching.

Will the squad have a fire in their belly and go out there with the full intention of winning everything within their power? You betcha.

Can they win silverware?

Definitely.

But if Rovers fielded and invested in a senior women's side with the proviso that they would win everything in sight (I'm not saying that they did) without any hiccups within their first two seasons, that has now been shown to be an unrealistic and unwise gamble.

If they did so to cultivate a competitive women's senior side, a unified team that would have success in the near future then they have hit the jackpot because the potential, flair and commitment is there in spades.

Positive signs

*******************

In fairness, anyone involved in the Rovers setup that I have met is fully committed to player development (in terms of both the individual themselves, and their football.)

The tweaks, patience demonstrated and investment from O'Neill and his coaching staff throughout what was a rollercoaster of a season, along with his focus on the positives achievements of his team, are all positive signs - along with the evident unity of the players on the pitch.

This team is ultimately one in their infancy competing (yes, strongly competing) against sides that have been together for years.

Success does not come overnight.

Winning titles and return of investment (in cold business terms, but this is just how the world works!) will follow, but what the team needs now is continued unconditional belief and backing from every corner.

Truth be told, it's what every team across the Women's Premier Division

needs too...