Clare Shine loving the game again among her first football family

The Women's FAI Cup quarter-finals see a Cork derby on Sunday, with Cork City visiting Douglas Hall, for whom retired Ireland international Shine has been starring. 

Clare Shine in action against Whitehall Rangers in the FAI Intermediate Cup

You might say Clare Shine has fallen back in love with football. The Ireland international retired from the professional game four years ago, having said all her goodbyes. But home, and particularly her first football home, eventually called.

“I moved to Australia six months after I stopped playing and I didn't really have an interest in playing when I was over there,” the Cork woman says. “I didn't really have the bug, and I didn’t miss it. I suppose I was in a new place, surrounded by new people, making new friends, so football wasn't really a big topic. And because of the time difference I wasn't really watching a lot of football either.”