Women's Premier Division: Five set to challenge for ultimate prize

There can often be too much of a good thing.

But when it comes to teams with the ambition and capability to win a league title, can there ever be too many?

This year's SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division is set to have at least five of its 11 members all vying for the ultimate prize.

Last year’s WNL had the most unpredictable conclusion in its history with four teams all hoping to win the title right to the very end.

There can’t have been many league run-ins in football history with so many clubs competing. But 2023 could go one better with Shamrock Rovers joining the league and showing their intent in the transfer window acquiring several big-name players.

The Hoops, along with Athlone Town, Peamount United, Shelbourne and Wexford Youths, can all make arguments why it can be their league title this season.

We look at the numbers which give one reason in favour and one against each of the five ending the season in triumph.

Athlone Town

American influence

Athlone were the unlikely success story of the 2022 season. In only their third year in the league, following two relatively modest seasons, they came within two points of winning a league title. Their leap of seven places from the previous year’s league table to last was the biggest single-season jump in the decade-long history of the WNL. Their improvement in points of 39 (19 to 58) is also the biggest increase any team has recorded.

However, as we will shortly outline, they have lost their top scorer Emily Corbet to Wexford making finding her replacement the key task for Tommy Hewitt. Possible solutions may have arrived from across the pond in 2022. American Maddie Gibson joined in July and in her 15 appearances scored seven goals and contributed six assists.

The nature of those stats are also impressive as she mainly played from a wide left role but on two occasions after Corbet was substituted Gibson went through the middle and scored a winner away to Cork City and an equaliser at DLR Waves. A change in role may bring even higher goal returns. She also made her name with a FAI Cup hat-trick against Wexford Youths. They also expect to have fellow American forward Dana Scheriff back after her season was cut to just six games following injury.

Departure of Emily Corbet

Away from the headlines of the splashy signings made by Shamrock Rovers was one of the biggest off-season transfers with striker Emily Corbet leaving Athlone for Wexford Youths. The WNL player of the season impressively finished with 20 league goals, two behind Aine O’Gorman. That was despite taking nearly half as many shots as the Ireland international (116 vs 64).

The striker’s central role in Athlone success is shown by accounting for 38% of Town’s league goals. Corbet also scored critical goals, doing so in five single-goal wins against Bohemians (twice), Cork City (twice) and Peamount as well as in a 1-1 draw away to Shelbourne. She also scored against Wexford to have at least one goal when playing each of the three title rivals in Shelbourne, Wexford and Peamount.

Peamount United

Early and late season form

Peamount’s season can be divided into three clear parts. The start and finish were great but the meat in the sandwich was not good. They won all of their first seven games, including wins against Wexford and Athlone, to lead the league. There was no sign that in the last of those games on 23 April in beating Cork City 8-1 that they would win only two (against strugglers Sligo Rovers and Cork City) of the next nine.

That run was bookended by 1-0 and 4-0 losses to Shelbourne which all but put them out of the league title race. But a strong finish without defeat in August, September or October brought them back in with a chance for the big finale. With fewer games in the summer months in which they struggled last year, maybe they can extend their early and late season form for a full year.

Loss of goals

Most teams are going into this season without some of their best players from last year. Peamount’s losses have particularly hit them in the attacking area which was their strength. They were top scorers by a wide margin ending on 80, 14 more than next best Shelbourne. At the other end they conceded double Shels total so it will be tough to rely on the backline to carry them.

Aine O’Gorman and Stephanie Roche scored or assisted on an amazing 48 goals in 2022, that comes to 60% of all Peamount league goals. James O’Callaghan has recruited well for replacements with Kate Mooney coming from DLR Waves with 10 goals and Avril Brierrly who had seven from just 11 starts at the same club. But they will need to have the best seasons of their careers to fully replace what O’Gorman and Roche provided.

Shamrock Rovers

Elite goalscoring combination

Shamrock Rovers made an early splash in the transfer market by acquiring two of the three leading scorers from last season in Aine O’Gorman and Stephanie Roche. They combined for 38 goals (22 and 16 respectively) which was more than the entire squads of Bohs (36), Sligo Rovers (32), Cork City (25) and Treaty United (5). Their goals alone should be enough to bring Shamrock Rovers to mid-table.

As well as their respective years of experience in this league and playing internationally, they will bring an understanding of playing together having been team-mates since under-18 days. That will be beneficial to a new team starting from scratch. It was O’Gorman who assisted Roche’s famous Puskas award nominated goal. And last year three of O’Gorman’s eight assists were for Roche while Roche provided two of her seven back the other way.

Experience in depth

As well as O’Gorman and Roche, new manager Collie O’Neill has also brought in plenty of other quality with four of last year’s team of the season (Jess Gargan, Shauna Fox and Jessica Hennessy as well as O’Gorman) now playing at Tallaght Stadium.

However, when looking through the full squad only 11 players had regular minutes last season and that includes two teenagers in Abbie Larkin and Melissa O’Kane. After those, the squad is mainly made up of academy players. Over a long season, there will be a lot of responsibility on those young players when injuries and suspensions take their toll. The current squad has an average age of 21.25 which would have been the second youngest in the league last season and well behind Peamount (25.8) or Shelbourne (25.3).

Shelbourne

Experience

As mentioned before, Shelbourne are one of the teams to see key parts of their double-winning team depart and we will discuss those losses. But some of the players they have retained, and the experience of those players, could keep them right near the very top. The below lists six key performers from the squad in 2022 with the number of league titles they have won, it’s very hard to find that level of experience.

• Pearl Slattery – 4
• Jessie Stapleton – 2
• Alex Graham – 5
• Rachel Kavanagh – 3
• Noelle Murray – 5
• Megan Smyth-Lynch – 3

Added to that is manager Noel King who has won the league in both his years with the club and has been managing since 1985, before any of the squad were even born.

Replacing star players

It is a familiar story but seeing Abbie Larkin, Amanda Budden, Jess Gargan and Shauna Fox walk out the door and down the road to Shamrock Rovers is a significant blow. Losing the goalkeeper and two of the back four from the league’s best defence will be a big test. With Shelbourne, there is recent history of losing several important players at the same time.

Last July, internationals Jess Ziu, Chloe Mustaki and Saoirse Noonan all moved abroad in the middle of big individual seasons. It coincided with a run of just four wins from 11 that almost cost Shels back-to-back league titles until a strong sprint finish got them over the line. That experience may be a help in the quest for three in a row.

Wexford Youths

Rianna Jarrett

Rianna Jarrett’s last three seasons as a Wexford player brought a league title, a league and cup double and the cup again in her final season. She finished 2019 as top scorer with 26, a figure nobody has come within four goals of since. She was also WNL player of the year in her last two years. The hometown hero returns to a squad with a lot of familiar faces with over half of the 2018 league-winning squad intact in Ciara Rossiter, Lauren Dwyer, Edel Kennedy, Orlaith Conlon and Kylie Murphy.

While many teams have arguably been weakened in the transfer market Wexford look to have strengthened by also adding Emily Corbet, scorer of 20 goals in 2022. All of the goals that both signings bring will be needed to replace Ellen Molloy while she is out with injury. The 18 year-old led the Youths in goals (16), shots per 90 (3.32), shots on target % (52.5), dribbles (189), fouls suffered (42) and through balls (42). As well as that she was second in assists and led the league in shots from outside the box (50).

Winning big games

With two games to go last season, Wexford were top of the table with the destiny of the title in their hands. However, they had tough fixtures against Peamount and Shelbourne, took just a single point and finished fourth. It followed a similar pattern for the season where they earned fewer points from games against title rivals than all others bar Athlone while having the second-best record against the rest of the league.

Likewise, in the three-way title battle of 2021, they took the same number of points against lower ranked teams as Peamount but finished five points back as they only managed one win from six games against Peas and Shelbourne. The year before, it was three losses from four against the same opponents. With even more teams looking to contend in 2023, they will need to improve when up against them head-to-head.

There’s a lot of quality in this year’s league but no team is perfect and that’s what will make it such an interesting season. Managers will have to work hard to accentuate the strengths of their teams and hide their flaws if there are to emerge from the battle royale that this league season should be.