Walsh and Finn Harps Women relishing step up to senior status next year

As the Finn Harps Women’s side prepare to step into senior football, it’s an exciting time for the club and joint-captain Codie Walsh.

The announcement of a new Women’s Development League, which will run alongside the Premier Division season, was huge for the Finn Park club as part of their venture into senior women’s football, something they have been working towards since 2022, spearheaded by the Head of Academy, Paddy McDaid.

The club have been operating at Under-19 and Under-17 levels for the past three seasons in the LOI Academy, and they have been improving as the seasons have progressed, both on the field and in numbers.

“I came in towards the end of the first year after playing Gaelic, and Orlaith Doherty came in around the same time from Sligo Rovers,” Walsh told DonegalLive.

“And at that point, we were really struggling for numbers and taking a lot of players up from the Under-17s, and we might have only had the bare 11.

“But it has really taken off since then, and you can see the skill and the confidence of the girls has improved, and the group is really tightly knit.

“Last year, we might have felt we were doing better, but this year was definitely our best year as a team because we were coming up against better opposition. We might not have gotten the results we wanted at times, but the performances were there, and I feel we’re improving so much, and we’re looking to do that for the new league.

“We still had some of the Under-17s making the step up this season, Sophie McLaughlin, Alannah Curran, and Scarlett Keys all played a lot.

“Rhianna Doherty, who won Under-17 Player of the Year, and Sarah McGuinness came up as well.”

From 2026, the club will join the new Women’s Development League, made up of 22 teams, twelve of which will be Under-23 sides from the current Women’s Premier Division sides.

Finn Harps are one of ten sides joining as senior teams, along with Bray Wanderers, CK United, Cobh Ramblers, Drogheda United, Dundalk, Kerry, Longford Town, Mayo, and St Patrick’s Athletic, who have all been participating in the EA SPORTS LOI Academy Development Programme.

There will be no promotion or relegation to the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division in the inaugural season, but they will go into the first round of the Sports Direct FAI Cup.

Athlone Town, Bohemians, Drogheda United, Dundalk, Finn Harps, Galway United, Longford Town, Mayo, Peamount United, Shelbourne, and Sligo Rovers make up Group 1, with 20 games played.

Teams will compete for a spot in the knockout stages, with the ultimate champion to be crowned in the Development League final.

And while the likes of the Harps, Drogheda United, Dundalk, Longford Town, and Mayo will be classified as senior clubs compared to the other six clubs, who will be Under-23 teams, the Donegal side will be on the young side compared to their opposition.

“We have some of the local trips at least, and then there are Under-23 teams from the bigger clubs like Bohemians and some of the other Dublin clubs.

“We’ve added some players in, Molly Paige played for Letterkenny Rovers and underage for the Donegal Women’s League, and she’s a great player. Roisin McCullagh and Alannah Kee are coming from Raphoe Town, and Rachel Lawne was originally with Finn Valley, and she played with Raphoe too, then Rachel Friel has joined from Fanad.

“It is a young squad, but I just hope we can go out and compete to the best level that we know we can. There were a few games last year where it might have been just silly mistakes and a bit more composure in areas where we could have got the result, and we can do a lot better, I feel.

“A lot of the new girls coming in are defensive players, so I think we have strengthened there at the back, and we can work from there.

“We’ve played the likes of Mayo and Longford last year, and they’re in the same boat as us, putting in their first senior team. Then, the likes of the Premier Division teams, it’s hard to know how strong they’ll be.”

The 21-year-old is a former Raphoe Town and Donegal Women’s League player and a former Donegal county minor, also featuring for the county senior team under Maxi Curran.

Now joint-captain along with the returning Aislinn Coll, both players would have been overage for the Under-19 team for the upcoming season, so it was important for them, and the club as a whole, to get the senior team up and running after the announcement came in September.

The league has been designed to help strengthen player pathways by providing more opportunities for players to compete at senior level, along with enabling the aforementioned players a chance to continue playing at a national level beyond the age of 19.

“For a while this year, there was no word of the Development League at all, and then in August it came out of nowhere.

“We could only field 2005 and 2004s (as overage players) this year, and we had one 2004, which was myself, and one 2005, which was Erika Gallagher.

“So if we stayed at Under-19s, Erika would have had one more year, but I would have had to move on.

“The announcement came that late in the season, and once it’s August time, we only really have knockout games after that, so you’re thinking about your future and what you’re going to do after this if there’s no league.

“I was thinking, will I go back to (Donegal) soccer or back to Gaelic, I just didn’t know.

“I tried to do the two sports together, but it just doesn’t really work, so I just ended up only playing Gaelic with the college.

“It’s massive to have this, it’s great for local girls because when you think of the Irish players like Amber Barrett, Erin McLaughlin, they had to move away to get the chance of playing at a better level, which they deserved, and they’re flying.

“So it’s great to have that at Finn Harps, where players can come in, really develop, and get to the International stage or go to England.”

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Moving into the Under-23 league, it’ll be a big challenge for the youthful side as they dive into a more senior level of football.

Managed by Dessie McGlinchey, who has a backroom team made up of Anna McFadden, Andrew Wilson, and Chantelle Grant, will play all their home games at Finn Park, having played a large amount of their home games at Corry Park in Illistrin last year, along with the odd game between Finn Park and the Letterkenny astro pitches.

“It’s a massive step up, I think all the girls are going to have to take everything even more seriously between recovery and nutrition, and preparation.

“We trained Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Community Centre, and half the team would have had their own gym programmes outside of Harps.

“But this year, Anna and Andrew have put together a very good pre-season plan, and we’re all out together.

“The first year we only played around two games at Finn Park, last year we got around seven games, but we only had the one, I think this year against Longford. It’ll be good to have that boost of just knowing the changing rooms and the place in general.”

Finn Harps squad: Aislinn Coll, Alannah Curran, Alannah Kee, Aoibheann Mullan, Claire Diver, Codie Walsh, Ella McHugh, Eva Blaney, Freya Canning, Maryanne Ward, Mollie Page, Niamh Ryan, Olivia Maxwell, Orlaith Doherty, Rachael Friel, Rachel Lawne, Rhianna Doherty, Rocha McCullagh, Sarah McGuinness, Scarlett Keys, Sophie McLaughlin.