Rachel Graham: Louise Quinn and Niamh Fahey generation should be celebrated
Nearly 20 years on and if you look through the players in that squad, household names abound. That particular team contained future Girls in Green centurions Louise Quinn, Diane Caldwell and Áine O'Gorman, while Puskas Award nominee and 58-time Ireland cap Stephanie Zambra was another key player in the frame.
Quinn called time on her playing career last week as did her long-time defensive colleague, Liverpool captain Niamh Fahey, and the duo stepping away from the scene has fuelled a sense of an era ending in Irish soccer, especially given that O'Gorman and Caldwell have already retired from international duty, Zambra is now coaching at Shamrock Rovers and Julie-Ann Russell has also stepped away from the game.
Shelbourne midfielder Rachel Graham, who was part of the aforementioned Under-19s crop in the mid-2000s and went on to represent her country at senior level between 2013 and 2017, told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast that it was important for her former team-mates to receive due recognition for what they have done for the country over a long span of time.
"These players deserve a lot of recognition for what they've done, they should be celebrated," said the 35-year-old, who helped Shels to a 3-1 win win at Treaty United in Saturday's round of SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division action.
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
"They've had great careers, done great performances for Ireland, been so consistent for Ireland.
"It's sad to see them go but I do think it's the right time. I just hope that they're really remembered and if they can keep them in the game, brilliant, but if not, celebrate everything that they've done and they've left the jerseys definitely in better places for the ones coming through."
Reflecting back almost two decades, Graham offered an insight into the career-long commitment levels that Quinn showed in a timeframe which also saw the Wicklow-born defender establish herself at Arsenal in between spells abroad in Sweden and Italy.
"I used to remember, once or twice in camp, we'd go to the pictures in the evening and we'd obviously all have popcorn and pick 'n' mix and Louise is there with her yoghurt and her fruit and her nuts," Graham recalled.
"That's the side of something that people don't see. It's all these little decisions that you have to make throughout the day to make yourself the best you can be and that's what she had to do.
"She couldn't cut corners, she was someone that every decision she had to make throughout the day was the right one she had to make.
"So to do as well as she did, it's a real credit to her because it's something that she had to work really hard for and she made a nice comment in her retirement statement that one of the reasons she played football was to play for Ireland and you could see that in her performances that she had for Ireland.
"It was body on the line or it was head on the line and whatever you needed from Louise, she'd be more than willing to do."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Ireland eye upset against Germany to keep EuroHockey hopes alive
Ireland women will have to produce one of their best attacking performances in recent years to topple Germany on Wednesday and advance to a first EuroHockey Championships semi-final. Gareth Grundie's side are yet to find the net after a spirited defeat to the Netherlands and an insipid loss to France. It means that world No.13 Ireland need to beat Germany by two clear goals, assuming that the Dutch, unbeaten at the Euros in a decade, beat France in the final pool matches. 'We were proud of our Dutch performance and our defensive effort where Lizzy [Murphy] was incredible in goal,' said captain Sarah Hawkshaw. 'But we were disappointed with how clinical we were in the France game with not putting it away. 'We hit the post twice and sometimes an inch to the left and the game changes quickly. It will be a game of the two circles against Germany and we have to be incredibly clinical.' Hawkshaw, 29, was part of an Ireland side that held Germany to a 1-1 draw at her first senior EuroHockey Championships in 2019 held in Belgium, where, incidentally, nine Irish players will be playing club hockey next season. Since that result, world No.6 Germany have won five in a row, while Ireland's last victory came at a 3 Nations event in 2018. At the 2023 Euros in Monchengladbach, Ireland also needed to beat Germany by two goals to progress to the semi-finals but came unstuck in a 5-0 defeat. 'The Europeans is one of the most challenging tournaments in hockey and playing the host team in their stadium at 8pm is what you want,' added Hawkshaw. 'It's why you commit yourself to the sport. We will go for it and we will bring a lot after our performance against France.' Germany possess solid ball retention but had little joy against the Dutch in their 5-1 defeat on Monday. Ireland will aim to keep the hosts out of their own circle and will also need to focus on moving the ball quicker to have any chance of finding the two-goal cushion required. 'It is a huge opportunity for us to perform,' said Katie Mullan. 'We didn't perform to the level we are capable of against France. 'We were incredibly proud with our defensive performance against the Dutch, but we also looked dangerous with a few of our attacking opportunities which was a real positive and a step forward. 'We always targeted the last group game. This is tournament hockey and we know all too well the turnaround time is really tight now and we will want to show up against Germany.' Their hopes of reaching a first semi-final could be scuppered before pushback should France achieve a seismic shock and beat the defending champions. It is an unlikely outcome. France have only played the Netherlands twice, losing 6-2 at the Paris Olympics and 11-0 a decade ago. Mullan added: 'Our focus is around putting on a performance we can be proud of at the end of 60 minutes. That way we will enjoy our game which is when we are at our best. 'We are still chasing our first goal and that's a huge motivator for us.'
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Mark English smashes his own Irish 800m record in Budapest
Mark English has broken his own Irish 800m record by over half a second at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet in Budapest. The two-time European outdoor bronze medallist clocked a time of 1:43.37 to finish second behind Kenya's Laban Kipkorir Chepkwony. In June, English became the first Irishman to run the 800m in under 1.44 when he posted a time of 1:43.92 in the FBK Games in the Netherlands. The Donegal athlete has posted a spate of records this year as he looks ahead to the World Championships in Tokyo. English has already claimed one medal at a championships this year, having taken bronze at the European indoors in Apeldoorn. Earlier this month, the Finn Valley runner claimed another national title in the 800m, holding off Cian McPhillips to take gold. Meanwhile Sweden's Mondo Duplantis broke his own pole vault world record with a clearance of 6.29 metres in Budapest, the 13th time he has set a new world-best mark. The double-Olympic champion continued his tradition of improving on his previous mark by one centimetre, with his second attempt overhauling the record he set in Stockholm in June.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Linda Djougang: 'We're not going into this World Cup as underdogs'
The mindset that underpinned Irish sport and Irish sportspeople has changed. The underdog tag that this nation wore as a comfort zone on the biggest of stages has been cast to the side and the women's rugby team will be no different in the coming weeks. It's less than four years since the national team failed to make the last World Cup, defeat to Spain and Scotland in a qualifying tournament in Parma consigning them to the role of onlookers from afar when the tournament kicked off in New Zealand a year later. Go back just two years and Ireland finished bottom of the Six Nations, stuck with the wooden spoon, after losing all five matches. The curve has turned upwards since, though, and Linda Djougang isn't interested in playing down what it is can be achieved. 'We were the underdog going into Tier 1 in Vancouver in the WXV1 when we qualified for the Rugby World Cup after beating Scotland last year and we went to Vancouver,' said the veteran prop on Tuesday. 'A lot of people believed that. 'People saw that we were kind of worried going and playing against the likes of New Zealand, Canada and USA, top-tier teams, but we came second. No-one thought that [would happen]. People saw us then as underdogs but the fact [is] that we beat the world champions. 'In top-tier one we came from 10th in the world to fifth so we have lost that underdog title. We don't want to be underdogs. We want every team to know that. Respect us because we've shown what we are capable of. We definitely won't be going into this World Cup as underdogs.' Performances in recent years mean that Ireland will certainly be respected but the warm-up loss to a number-two ranked Canada in Belfast last Saturday was a reminder of the journey still to go before this squad reaches its full potential. Head coach Scott Bemand admitted last month that the team is further along in its development now than he had expected, a reference no doubt to the fact that the make-up of the collective is still relatively inexperienced. The days of teamsheets sprinkled with players yet to earn a double-digit figure of caps are gone but Ireland are still raw. Djougang, with 48 appearances, is far and away the most experienced player travelling to England later this month. This is something that people regularly say to her but she will respond by pointing out that the likes of Dannah O'Brien, Aoife Dalton and Niamh O'Dowd are players with the sort of mentality that can belie such statistics. 'Last year in Vancouver really opened our eyes, where we played the likes of New Zealand and were able to beat them. We had less caps then. Now we definitely have grown and gained even more experience. 'It just shows the players sometimes have to forget about the caps. It's more about our mindset and ability to focus on what's in front of us.' A theatre nurse who has taken a career break to focus on this World Cup shot, Djougang is one of 10 in the current squad who featured that day in Parma in 2021 when they fell short of Scotland and a place at the global gig. The change in the squad since has been seismic. Torrents of players have been ushered in as a steady stream of big-name and big-game players exited the building. Among those to move on since are Eimear Considine, Sene Naoupu, Lindsay Peat, Nichola Fryday, Ciara Griffin and Claire Molloy. All bar Fryday did at least retire having played at a previous World Cup and theirs is a legacy that Djougang is eager to build on now that the women's team has turned a corner and looks to ensure that the disaster that was 2021 never happens again. 'So we definitely want to go to the World Cup and perform to our best ability and leave the jersey in a better place,' she explained, 'so that the future generations don't have to go through the same thing.' As for those ten 'survivors', that torment does at least bring with an appreciation of the distance they have all travelled in the years since and Djougang can't help but think back even further when summing up what this all means. She was 21 and still a few years away from her Ireland debut when she watched Ireland and Wales fight for seventh place before England took on New Zealand in the 2017 World Cup final in Belfast and thought that this was the stage she wanted to grace. And now she's made it. 'It just makes it a little bit more extra special.'
