New Sean Dolan's ladies team creating history

The most significant sporting achievement in the city this week might well have taken place at Sean Dolan’s on Monday night, as their new senior ladies team took to the field for their first game at home.

It has been 15 years since the Creggan club has fielded a senior ladies team, and amidst the obvious progression at the club in recent years, addressing that gap was a priority, with work beginning as far back as last year to make it a reality once again.

After travelling to Lissan last week, the Dolans Ladies faced Desertmartin on Monday, cheered on by a large crowd who knew just exactly what this meant to those on the pitch and the club itself.

Manager Eamon McGinley admitted it was a special occasion.

“It was brilliant,” he said. “We had a big squad out, and they competed, which is probably the most important bit for us. A lot of new clubs starting out in ladies football are not scoring, maybe, for the first couple of months, but for a large part of the game, we were competing. Now, obviously, fitness and conditioning, it takes a while for that to reach the level that they need to be at, but it's a work in progress, so, it was really, really exciting, and they had a big crowd up supporting them.

“There's just a buzz around the club. We set out to do this, maybe a year and a half ago, and now we've seen the result of it. Now it's just building on that.”

The process of rebuilding the Senior Ladies team started through the club’s Mothers & Others programme and it has proved so popular to the extent that McGinley has 35 players to choose from each and every match day. It will take time for everyone involved to get to the level they aspire to, with the hard work now just beginning, but the progress made in such a short space of time has been exciting.

“It's the pathway, especially for some girls coming through,” Eamon explained. “Whenever you see young boys coming through in terms of their age, they always see the senior team as being, that's where they want to get to.

“We were missing that, so, the fact that we're now seeing the end of that pathway, where if you have girls under 10, under 12, the girls, they look up to you and say, well, that's where I want to get to in the future.

Sean Dolans Ladies squad. (Photos - Tom Heaney, nwpresspics)

"It's really, really positive, and it's a big milestone for us to get to as a club. We've only started ladies’ football at the club, I think six or seven years ago, and we now have from under-8s right through to senior ladies. The progress is massive, and it's really, really quick, so it's just pressure on the club to try and manage it, but it's a good problem to help.”

The ladies will be eager to get that first win as soon as possible, and they have already shown their capabilities on the pitch, even hitting three goals in their debut game at Lissan, but McGinley agrees that patience is key.

“It's just managing expectations,” he continued. “There's no point in saying that we're going to go out and expect to win every match. But the first night we went out, we made it our business to try and get everybody on the pitch, because it was a big night for the club, and we wanted the girls to feel part of that big monumental step that we now have a senior ladies team on the pitch.

“But now it is around raising the standards, getting the girls to do their training three nights a week. They're putting the work in. You'd probably argue they're probably putting more work on than the senior men!

“In fairness to them, every single one of them have bought into it, and every single one of them are capable of playing, so it's a really good position for us to be in.

Action from the Sean Dolans Ladies v Desertmartin game at Dolans GAA grounds. 

"At the start of this, whenever we set out, we said, if we’re fielding in the first year, we'll be happy enough, but the fact that for large parts of the games where you're playing established teams, and we're actually competing well, it's brilliant to see, really, really powerful to see.”

‘No-one out of place’

There are different generations playing alongside each other in this new Dolan’s team, but regardless of age or experience, Eamon insists that they are all helping each other improve with each passing week.

“You have people, let's just say, a bit more mature, a bit more seasoned, but they don't look out of place on the pitch,” he said. “They're still good enough to play, but it's brilliant to see. Even in terms of sort of building that confidence and leadership within the club. Though a lot of the younger guys are actually the leaders within the team.

“It's us putting that belief in them as people and as players, that they need to lead the team. So, they're taking the lead on the older girls coming on to the team, and they're driving them as opposed to the older girls driving the younger girls, which again, in terms of building their own sort of personal development, it's really, really powerful to see.”

Playing games is a much different prospect than training, but now that the league is underway, the new Sean Dolan’s Senior Ladies team will have something extra to motivate them every single week. These girls are history makers at their club.

Throw-in Sean Dolans Ladies v Desertmartin game at Dolans GAA grounds.

“The first night we went out, against Lissan, it was the same thing, we did compete,” Eamon reflected. “On Monday we scored 1-6, but last week we scored 3-8, I think it was, so to score that in a match when you're only starting out was great. I know we have the hall, but most of the girls, their first match there in the league was their first ever full-size match.

“They've never played a match before, so for them to go out there and compete against teams that have been playing for at least the last couple of years, it's an acknowledgment to themselves about the amount of work that they've put in to make it happen and to have that confidence. I know, especially for ladies, it's more daunting probably than men, because a lot of men be around sport a lot more. But for them to go on a Gaelic pitch, 15 aside, and compete against teams that have been there for the last couple of years. I have to say it's really, really powerful.”