The 2025 Women's Premier Division season will have a very different look to previous campaigns.
Athlone Town will be defending champions for the first time, Waterford will make their maiden appearance in the league and seven new managers will be leading their teams.
Normally new managers come in after a bad season or run of results but this year there are new faces in dugouts throughout the league.
The teams who finished first, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 11th have all made new appointments.
The long off-season should have given the new bosses plenty of time to identify where they would like to bring about improvements, so we have looked at one strength of each team that can provide a foundation for the new appointees to build on.
Athlone Town – Colin Fortune – Attacking threats
The other managers on this list may look with jealously at the chance Colin Fortune has to take over last year’s best team. But expectations will be high for a club who has won trophies in consecutive years. Although Athlone won the league with the second lowest goals per game of any champion [2.0, above Wexford’s 1.94 in 2017], the increased competitiveness of the league’s bottom clubs has reduced scoring across the league. There are plenty of attacking talent at Athlone.
Despite losing Casey Howe mid-season, they brought in Brenda Tabe who scored seven times in her eight starts. That wasn’t enough to be the team’s top scorer, however, as league player of the year nominee Madison Gibson bagged eight. The American also led the league in assists [6] as well as being first in dribble success percentage and crosses per 90.
Another POTY nominee on the opposite wing was Roisin Molloy.
The Sligowoman chipped in with five goals and two assists in addition to being second in dribbles attempted and fourth for touches in the penalty box. With Ireland underage keeper Katie Keane departed, among others, towards the back, Fortune can focus on ensuring the defence doesn’t regress too much as the attack should remain strong.
Bohemians – Alban Hysa – Home record
Bohs promoted from within as Alban Hysa steps up from the club’s under-17 team, but he has previous league experience from his time with Treaty United. Despite finishing in eighth in 2024, only the top four teams had more points at home than the Gypsies.
It wasn’t just last season as the previous year only the top three clubs earned more points on their home patches despite Bohs finishing sixth overall.
In their last 20 played at Dalymount, they have just four losses [two being 1-0] and kept eight clean sheets. Those good home and defensive records kept Bohs above the bottom three last year.
But with at least six fewer goals scored than any of the teams above them, Hysa will hope the addition of Ireland underage star Hannah Healy from Shelbourne can provide the creative spark to improve that.
Cork City – Frank Kelleher – Strong start
Frank Kelleher is one of two managers returning for a second spell. Although he finds a team who finished ninth, they showed they were capable of more. At the end of July with 13 games played, Cork City sat sixth. They had just beaten defending champions Peamount, done the double over Bohemians and taken four points from Shamrock Rovers.
Unfortunately, the league’s second youngest team [average age of 21.9], ran out of steam and only picked up one point from the final seven. Notably three of their best young talents in Niamh Cotter, Kiera Sena and Heidi Mackin, all Ireland under-19 internationals, missed time.
Cotter who was first in the league in aerial duel success [72.92%] and fourth in blocked shots [15] missed three of seven. Sena did likewise and she was seventh in the league for dribble success [57.58%]. Mackin missed the final two against Sligo Rovers and DLR Waves.
Player availability could be key with big departures in Orlaith O’Mahony and Alix Mendez who were second and third for minutes played. Ireland international Eva Mangan’s presence can go some way to making up for those losses and Kelleher will be delighted to retain her services.
Peamount United – Emma Donohoe & Gary Seery – Wins from behind
It was a disappointing year for Peamount with the biggest season to season points reduction of 26.
That took them from 2023 champions to middle of the pack sixth. But they did show one trait of a champion team with the fighting spirit to come from behind many times.
They took nine points from losing positions, the most in the league. Twice they turned half-time deficits into victory, as many times as the rest of the league combined. One of those was beating champions Athlone Town and showed their pedigree.
That was in large part to strong finishing with 10 goals scored in the final 15 minutes of games also more than any other side. Their two conceded in that time was the league’s fewest. If the new managers can find a way to start games as well as they finished, they could be back among the title contenders.
Sligo Rovers – Steve Feeney – Young talent
Like Frank Kelleher at Cork City, Feeney is back for a second stint at Sligo Rovers and they also didn’t fare as well without him going from third from bottom in his two prior seasons to seven points adrift at the basement in 2024. But with the youngest average age in the league of 21.5, he returns to find some young talents developing well.
Ireland underage international Keeva Flynn became a regular in 2024 with 15 starts. Despite being just 16 years old during the season she was fifth in shots blocked [14] and had an aerial duel success rate of 68.75 that was only bettered by two players.
Behind her was Ireland under-19 international goalkeeper Amber Hardy. Only two keepers faced more than her 86 shots but her average of four saves per game only trailed Eva Badana. Just Amanda McQuillan [6.1] and Jayne Merren [3.09] bettered her 2.93 xG prevented.
Treaty United – Sean Russell - Holding leads
Sean Russell follows in the path of his father Martin who managed the Limerick men’s team between 2014 and 2017. He takes over a side whose seventh-place finish was equal to their best ever in 2018 and 2019 but they nearly doubled their best ever points tall with 23 from a previous most 12.
What was notable about their seven wins was that six came with clean sheets and in all seven they scored first. They won every game in which they scored first. Only once did they hold a lead and not go on to win, that being on the second week of the season when they had a 2-2 tie at Tallaght Stadium with Shamrock Rovers.
That ability to keep a lead is a credit to an international defence made up of a Canadian keeper [Anne-Marie Ulliac] and defenders from Japan [Ayaka Ikeza], USA [Anna Rockett], Canada [Mara McCleary] and the Netherlands [Mijke Roelfsema].
That defence may be needed even more if they are to be without top scorer Danielle Steer who scored an astonishing eight times in her 11 starts including in four of their seven wins.
Wexford – Sean Byrne – Long range screamers
On paper Wexford’s fourth place finish in 2024 was a big improvement on seventh the year before. But it brought no more wins, just three more points and three fewer goals scored. The 28 times they found the back of the net was not enough, being ten fewer than any of the teams above them and lower than fifth place Shamrock Rovers. They had particular problems away from home with just six scored from their first eight and failing to score in half of those games.
But when they did score, it was often spectacular with their nine goals from outside the box being two more than anyone else. There was two each for midfielders Ciara Rossier, Aoibheann Clancy and Ellen Molloy. Anyone familiar with Molloy’s career will know she has a knack for a wonder strike and these examples against Treaty United showed that. Crucially, they were also match winners.
Adding more goals in the box, particularly from centre forward, may be a priority. Ceola Bergin occupied that role for much of the season but returned just three goals and has moved to Galway United. More playing time for legend Rianna Jarrett would be a big boost for Byrne.
Those are just some of the positives in a league which has had increases in attendance and tv coverage in recent years.
Plenty of clubs will feel positive about their chances too with Athlone Town keeping key parts of their league-winning team and Shelbourne on a high from their spectacular cup final success in the season’s finale.
Also, Galway United won a trophy in the All-Island Cup for the second successive year while putting up a strong title contention.
The success stories in recent years of Athlone Town and Galway United in taking away success from the league’s traditional powers should give hope and encouragement throughout the league that more teams can rise up the table.
All seven new managers will be aiming to add to what they have inherited and be the ones to bring new success to their club in 2025 and beyond.
