This day last week ended up being a momentous one for the Girls in Green.
While they might have lost the battle in Leuven - narrowly - the Republic of Ireland won the war as Carla Ward's side beat Belgium 5-4 on aggregate to seal promotion to League A and more importantly to make life easier in the play-offs for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup even if this afternoon's draw throws up a difficult set of qualifying fixtures.
On last week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Shelbourne midfielder and former international Rachel Graham shared her view on the hero of the night Abbie Larkin as well as goalkeeper Grace Moloney who was stepping into big shoes in the absence of long-time number one Courtney Brosnan.
A week on, Graham was back in studio for this week's episode and along with discussing the possibility of a Champions League final at Aviva Stadium in 2029 and the World Cup qualifying draw, this time she was tasked with picking her XI of Irish players aged under-23 who are either on the fringes of the Irish senior squad or have a good chance of staking a claim down the line.
Graham revealed the full XI on the podcast (watch or listen below with timestamps here) but in goal, she picked a player who, while uncapped, has been included in recent squads and who she is confident will be the ultimate successor to Brosnan in the long-term.
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"Katie Keane is in there. Obviously she was in the last squad but we know that's because Courtney Brosnan was injured," Graham said of the Leicester City keeper.
"So she hasn't really been exposed to international level past the under-19 but she's definitely someone who has such a high ceiling and so much potential.
"She played with us at Shels for a while and you could see her in training. Some of the stuff she was doing, even her athletic ability to be able to spring across the goal, jump up, get stuff that's high in the goal that some keepers might struggle with.
"She's someone who has huge potential. Obviously, she's only 19 now, Courtney Brosnan is 29 so she might be waiting a while to take that number one spot.
"But I do think it will be hers in the future. She's someone who would definitely benefit from getting high level international exposure."
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