Rising Ireland star Éabha O’Mahony learning from the best
Éabha O’Mahony (right) looks on as Diane Caldwell, left, and Denise O’Sullivan, go through their paces during yesterday’s Ireland squad training at the FAI National Training Centre in Abbotstown.
Of all the berths in the Ireland team to be vying for, Éabha O’Mahony has the most onerous task of displacing Katie McCabe.
The Arsenal left-sided player is developing into one of the country’s greatest exports; four goals and five assists for the Gunners so far this season underlining her importance to the WSL leaders.
Cork native O’Mahony won the last of her three caps in Iceland five months ago, an experimental phase when McCabe was pushed further up the pitch towards attack.
Within the structure of the current team building up a head of steam in the World Cup qualifiers, however, she operates in the left wing-back role O’Mahony craves.
At 19, she knows the pecking order and the patience it demands. The Cork City graduate can take comfort that McCabe, six years her elder, underwent a similar waiting game during her teens.
O’Mahony is barely four months into her professional career, a scholarship at Boston College lasting four years. The US collegiate system worked for fellow Leesider Megan Connolly, as it is for first-choice Ireland attacker Heather Payne at Florida State, so she’s not lost in a blind alleyway.
“Katie is a prime example of what you should be doing,” said the former Ballincollig pupil ahead of the double-header against Slovakia on Thursday and Georgia on Tuesday next week, both at Tallaght.
“So when she’s on the pitch, it is ‘What can I do to make myself more like her?’ “Katie is in flying form, getting Player of the Game nearly every match. She’s someone everyone looks up to.
“I’m an observer. There are so many ups and downs in sport, you just have to take everything with a grain of salt. The sun always comes up the next day. It will only benefit me in the long run.”
The benefits of full-time training and immersing herself in American culture are already apparent. Doing so in Irish dominated Boston has eased her transition.
“I wanted to improve the physicality and aggression side of my game and that’s developed from the level I’m playing at,” she explained.
“I thought I’d be more homesick but there are Irish people literally everywhere.
“I was coaching a few kids in Boston and a couple had the strongest Kerry accent I ever heard. I said ‘this is gas’.
“I’m loving every second of it. I’m currently in the business school but I’m going to change to applied psychology and minor in something business-like. We don’t have to decide for the last two years and I’m just concentrating on soccer.
“I’ve got out to watch American sports, getting to Celtics and Boston Bruins games.
“Going to my first ice hockey match was great too. It was like hurling on ice really. Junior B maybe. There was a scrap which made it better, to be honest!” There’s plenty of fight in this Leesider too as she maps out a career that is still in its infancy.
Meanwhile, Megan Walsh says she made the decision to join the Irish set-up following discussions with her Brighton teammates. The goalkeeper, previously capped for England underage and Great Britain, declared through her Enniscorthy-born grandfather Willie Walsh.
"I was with Rianna Jarrett, Denise O'Sullivan, and Megan Connolly at Brighton last year when my Irish heritage came up and things went from there," said the 27-year-old.
A hamstring injury sustained by Ellen Molloy during her FAI Cup final masterclass on Sunday rules out the 17-year-old. Liverpool forward Leanne Kiernan and Glasgow City's Claire Walsh are also out, prompting a debut call-up for 16-year-old midfielder Jessie Stapleton and her Shelbourne teammate Jess Ziu.
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