Shelbourne midfielder Rachel Graham is hopeful that Athlone Town striker Kelly Brady will get an opportunity with the Republic of Ireland before long.
The US-born player has been a key part of her club's success this season as they retained the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division title, scoring in the crucial win over title rivals Shelbourne that brought the midlanders within touching distance of glory ten days ago, before netting a hat-trick against Cork City last Wednesday to put a seal on the trophy as they aim for the double with a Sports Direct Women's FAI Cup final to come next Saturday.
That latter performance has taken the former Ireland Under-19 international to 19 goals in the league this season.
But whether her efforts over the campaign will be enough to end up on the radar of Ireland senior manager Carla Ward is a different matter.
The Girls in Green return to action towards the end of this month in the two-legged UEFA Nations League promotion/relegation play-off against Belgium, who featured at this summer's Euro 2025.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Graham said she would like to see Brady involved but that the important nature of the Belgium games might preclude Ward from throwing too many new faces into the squad when she comes round to naming it.
"I definitely think she should be getting the opportunity. She's top goalscorer in our league, best centre-forward in our league and she's played for Ireland before at underage," Graham said of Brady, whose parents hail from Galway and Monaghan respectively.
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"If I was Carla Ward, it's someone you would be looking at. Obviously the camp coming up is going to be a really tough one to call brand new players, players that you've never seen at that level before.
"So whether it's a case of next year's Nations League or if we have friendly games, you might see her get a call-up.
"But I think for this camp, I'm not sure. I wouldn't say no but I'm just thinking it would probably be a bit of a risk from Carla's side to call in someone completely new.
"It could be a case of she's not in the squad but in the extended squad but bring her into training and see how she gets on - give her a feel for what the level is like.
"But if you're top goalscorer in our league, she's very hard to defend against, it's definitely something where if we have these types of players at our disposal, I definitely think it should be something we should be looking at and looking to use her."
While 23-year-old Brady falls under the bracket of a 'maybe' in the short-term, Graham is expecting to see a few familiar faces who have been sidelined by injuries to earn recalls.
"Jamie Finn is back playing now, Jess Ziu is back playing now. These are top, top players that we want to get in our squad. I'm sure Carla is dying to get them back in."
Watch Republic of Ireland Under-21s v Slovakia Under-21s in UEFA European Championship qualifying on Friday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
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