Cork City W.F.C.

Cork City Women's Football Club (Irish: Cumann Peile Chathair Chorcaí na mBan) is an Irish women's association football team, based in Cork. Based at Bishopstown Stadium for home games, the club play in a green strip with a red and white diamond on the shirt and white hoops on the socks. The club crest is the same as the Cork City FC emblem, which is itself a variant of the Cork coat of arms. The club was founded in 2011 as Cork Women's F.C., to take its place as one of seven teams in Ireland's inaugural Women's National League.[2] In 2014 they affiliated with FORAS, the supporters' trust who own Cork City FC, and relaunched as Cork City Women's FC.[3] The club claimed their first national silverware by winning the FAI Women's Cup in 2017.[4]

Cork City F.C. Womens
Full nameCork City Football Club
Nickname(s)The Rebel Army, The Leesiders
Founded2011 (2011)
(as Cork Women's FC)
GroundBishopstown Stadium
Capacity2000
ManagerRonán Collins[1]
LeagueWomen's National League
Women's Under 17 National League
20195th
WebsiteClub website

History

2011–12
Further information: 2011–12 Women's National League (Ireland)

Cork Women's F.C. was founded after the granting of a license to compete in the inaugural season of the Women's National League by the Football Association of Ireland.[5] The club played its games in the stadium of the Cork Institute of Technology for their debut year. A squad was assembled containing players such as Denise O'Sullivan, Marie Curtin, Ciara O’Connell and Clare Shine under the management of Dave Bell.[6] The club had some mixed results on the field and Bell left by mutual agreement in early March 2012. Former Tralee Dynamos player Ronan Collins took the reins of the club until the end of the season. After a strong finish, the Leesiders came third behind Dublin duo Raheny United and Peamount United. Peamount won the competition outright and sealed a double that season by also winning the Cup.

2012–13
Further information: 2012–13 Women's National League (Ireland)

A new season brought a new manager as Maurice Farrell was appointed head coach.[7] There was also much change in the playing staff as several players like Katie McCarthy, Marie Curtin and Sylvia Gee departed while a young team impressed in patches but was disrupted by injury, especially to Irish international Denise O’Sullivan. The club also moved to Turners Cross stadium for the following season. The injury problems and changes in playing staff resulted in a difficult season and the club finished second-bottom of the league.

2013–14
Further information: 2013–14 Women's National League (Ireland)

For the third season of existence, the club underwent a significant transition in players as effectively a new team was signed due to departures.[8] Irish International Denise O'Sullivan was the highest profile departure – sealing a move to Scottish club Glasgow City after two seasons in Cork. The club also began tentative discussions with FORAS Trust which allowed the club to play home games at Bishopstown Stadium. A difficult season followed as the team failed to register a point and only scored two goals all season. At the end of the season, Maurice Farrell departed the club.[9] Off the pitch, the club strengthened ties with COPE Foundation and the Cork Institute of Technology during the year.

2014–15
Further information: 2014–15 Women's National League (Ireland)

The club formally agreed to a merger with Cork City F.C. and FORAS Trust, to become Cork City W.F.C. for the upcoming season.[10] The club continued to play matches at Bishopstown stadium. Former Gaynor Cup-winning manager for Cork, Charlie Lynch, was appointed manager of the club and assembled a squad with additions such as Irish U19 internationals Ciara McNamara and Shannon Carson. Despite an improvement on the field in performances, the club experienced some tight defeats and narrow draws – leading to another season without a single league win. The club controversially forfeited their final league fixture against Raheny United, failing to field a team. This deprived Raheny's Katie McCabe of an opportunity to claim the WNL Golden Boot.[11]

2015–16

Charlie Lynch was appointed Head of Youth Development and former Bandon AFC manager Niall O'Regan appointed as manager for the 2015–16 season. With some new players, they secured their first win in two years against newly formed Kilkenny United. In February 2016, Frank Kelleher was announced as the new manager, replacing Niall O'Regan.[12]

2016–17
See also: 2017 Women's National League (Ireland)

Cork City WFC won the FAI Women's Cup in November 2017.[4]

2017–18
See also: 2018 Women's National League (Ireland)

In 2018, the club reached the final of the Women's National League Development Shield competition,[13] losing out to Wexford Youths W.F.C. on penalties.[14]

Stadia
See also: Bishopstown Stadium and Turners Cross (stadium)

Cork City W.F.C. play their home games at Bishopstown Stadium in Curaheen. The Stadium was developed by former Cork City F.C. chairman Pat O'Donovan in 1994 as the new home for the club. However, due to the poor finances of the club the ground was sold to first the Football Association of Ireland who held onto the ground in the short term while the club was trying to resolve its financial problems. They later sold the ground to McCarthy Developments of Cork who while waiting for planning laws to be changed, have rented the ground to Cork City F.C. as a training and administrative base.[15]

In Cork Women FC's debut season, games were staged at the Cork Institute of Technology Sports Stadium. The club then moved to Turners Cross for 2012–13 before moving on to Bishopstown Stadium.

League placings
Season Points Total Position
2011–12 20 3rd
2012–13 14 6th
2013–14 0 8th
2014–15 2 7th
2015–16 7 6th
2016 9 6th
2017 22 5th
2018 24 5th
2019 24 5th

Players

2019 squad
As of 1 August 2019.[16]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
13 GK Maria O’Sullivan
25 GK Abby McCarthy
2 DF Nathalie O’Brien
3 DF Danielle Burke
4 DF Ciara McNamara
5 DF Savannah McCarthy
11 DF Éabha O’Mahony
15 DF Zara Foley
20 DF Shaunagh McCarthy
21 DF Emma Farmer
22 DF Kate O’Donovan
No. Position Player
6 MF Maggie Duncliffe
9 MF Katie McCarthy
14 MF Rachel O’Regan
16 MF Stacey Paul O’Regan
17 MF Riona Crowley
26 MF Liz O’Connor
7 FW Christina Dring
8 FW Eadaoin Lyons
10 FW Saoirse Noonan
18 FW Megan Sheehan
19 FW Lauren Egbulonui
MF Rebekah Cassin

Notable former players
Republic of Ireland women's internationals
Cork ladies' Gaelic footballer

Coaching staff

As of the start of the 2019 season the technical staff reportedly included:[1]

Position Name
Manager Ronán Collins
Coach Paul Farrell

Cork City W.F.C. managers
Year/s Manager
2011-2012 Dave Bell
2012 Ronan Collins
2012-2014 Maurice Farrell
2014-2015 Charlie Lynch
2015-2016 Niall O'Regan
2016-2017 Frank Kelleher[12]
2018- Ronán Collins[17]

See also

References
  1. "Backroom Staff". corkcityfc.ie. Cork City FC. Retrieved 22 February 2019. Women's Team [..] Eric Higgins - First Team Coach [..] Ronán Collins - Academy / Caretaker Manager
  2. RTÉ Sport (2011-08-03). "FAI announce new Women's League". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  3. "Cork Women's FC to re-launch". Supporters Direct. 9 June 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-01-26. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  4. "Moment of magic wins Women's FAI Cup final for Cork City". independent.ie. Independent News & Media. 5 November 2017.
  5. "Bus Eireann Women's League ready for kick-off". sseairtricityleague.ie.
  6. Louise Cashell (2011-08-03). "The dream is finally becoming a reality". Cork Independent. Archived from the original on 2012-01-05. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
  7. Peter McNamara (2012-08-01). "New Cork boss Farrell focuses on long term development". Extratime.ie. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-09-25.
  8. Louise Cashell (2013-08-15). "New players for Cork Women's FC". Cork Independent. Retrieved 2014-09-25.
  9. Kieran McCarthy (2014-05-02). "Maurice Farrell departs Cork Women's FC". Southern Star.
  10. Joseph McSweeney (2014-06-23). "Cork Women's FC relaunched as Cork City W.F.C." Official Site. Archived from the original on 2014-09-03. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
  11. Clarke, Aaron (5 May 2015). "WNL 2014/15 season - As it happened". extratime.ie. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  12. "Frank Kelleher appointed Cork City W.F.C. manager". corkcitywomensfc.com. Cork City W.F.C. 7 February 2016. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  13. "WNL Shield 2018 Development Shield". wnl.fai.ie. FAI. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  14. "Wexford Youths lift Women's NL Shield after shoot-out victory". the42.ie. Journal Media. 7 October 2018.
  15. Buckley, Éanna (4 March 2010). "McCarthy Developments Announced as Community Partner". Cork City F.C. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  16. "Women's Senior Team". Cork City Football Club. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  17. "Rónán Collins appointed interim manager of Women's Team". corkcityfc.ie. Cork City FC. 9 May 2018.
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