“A fairytale return”: Why Shamrock Rovers are enjoying life in the Premier Division after their “Lazarus-act” revival – scout report

Shamrock Rovers Women has long been a name synonymous with women’s football in the Republic of Ireland (RoI), with the team being top-flight regulars for many years and securing plenty of silverware back in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, despite those successes, the team was disbanded in 2014, with the club announcing that they would be focusing their efforts on developing the men’s team from that point as they tried to grow the Rovers brand around Tallaght (the town in South Dublin where they are based) and make it stand for something in the local community.

Fast forward nine years though and the women’s team has finally made its long-awaited return, with them successfully reclaiming a place in the top flight (known as of 2023 as the Women’s Premier Division) from this season and looking to get back to where they were before. The early signs in that regard are good, with six wins and three draws and an unbeaten record (the only side in the division still to have one) indicating that the hard work that has gone on off the field to build the squad and implement the game plan has not gone to waste.

What has particularly caught the eye about their displays so far is the simplicity with which they have performed, with head coach Collie O’Neill demanding that his players don’t overcomplicate matters and instead focus on doing the basic things well, and this tactical analysis will expand on how that has benefitted them with and without the ball and allowed them to start their second life in such promising form.

Central overloads

When looking at an overview of O’Neill’s tactics, it is clear to see that he prefers possession-based football and wants his Shamrock Rovers Women team to control the flow of their games, ensuring that they don’t rely on their opponents to do them favours and instead keep their fate in their own hands.

With that in mind, he likes his side to numerically overload the central channel to ensure that, when the ball enters the final third, they have as strong a chance of scoring as it is possible to have. However, with his side lining up mainly in a 4-2-3-1 formation (something they have done in 44% of their matches so far), players have needed to show versatility when they don’t have the ball in order to adjust their positions and not remain in the same areas of the field for the entire 90 minutes.

This has played directly into the hands of Áine O’Gorman, who has demonstrated throughout her career that she can play on either wing, as a striker, in an attacking midfield role and at full-back, and she has been able to combine all of those skills into one package this season which has really benefitted Rovers.

Wi