Bonagee United have to make the most of this golden chance - Chris McNulty

Bonagee United must treat Saturday’s FAI Woman’s Amatuer Cup final like its a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity because boss Chris McNulty admits that’s what it might very well transpire to be. 

The Dry Arch girls’ ambition is to become a regular force at national level but the importance of the weekend’s tangle with Terenure Rangers cannot be understated. 

Bonagee were 2-1 victors at the semi-final stage against Killester Donnycarney, with goals coming from Ciana Brogan and, very late in the day, Caitlin Fletcher, to seal their first-ever final appearance. 

When the dust did settle on that feat three weeks ago, McNulty was content to see and hear that the girls weren’t basking in the glory of their achievement. They were moving on right away when the squad regrouped the following Monday night. 

“It’s brilliant in that immediate aftermath, particularly in the way we won it, you have to celebrate that,” McNulty explained. “It was brilliant. A wee girl comes off the bench, her first game in the competition, and she bags the winner. 

“But we spoke about it right away on the Monday, that it was brilliant to be in the final but these chances don’t come around that often. We said that when Cockhill made it through to the Intermediate mens final. 

“So when the opportunity is there, you have to take it. This may very well be a once in a lifetime chance. It’s a fantastic stage - not just for the girls but for the club on the whole. I think Bonagee, across the board, belongs on the national stage. 

“From top to bottom, it’s as professional as you’ll get anywhere in the country. Games like this, we’d love to see these occasions become regular. Jason Gibson did amazing with the mens team with Shelborne coming here back in August. The place was packed out. 

“Taking all that into account, and even with all that ambition to make those types of nights a regular thing; we still have to approach this game with the mindset that we might not see its like again. Because the truth is we might well not”. 

McNulty is into his sixth season at the helm in Bonagee. And the contrast between where he found them to where he’s managed to take them couldn’t be any different. 

But the credit for that, he insists, goes to the players and a chairman willing to take a real gamble. 

“I took over in the winter of 2017. So 2018 was our first season together. I remember meeting the girls and they were coming in off the back of some really heavy defeats. I remember saying to them I want to get them competitive at a national level. 

“Ordinarily, saying that to a group of girls coming off the back of a season like they’d just had, they might look at you like you’d two heads. But you could actually see the key players in that room nodding as if to say, ‘why not us?’. 

“Even with that line in the sand sort of drawn, it’s been such a long journey to get to this point. That’s why we simply have to do everything we can to grab it now with both hands. In terms of woman’s football, I suppose you could describe us as a young club.

“But the rise has been quite rapid.  And it’s all been down to the players and the ownership they’ve taken of the effort and direction they want to steer it. As a management team, yeah you can put gameplans and a roadmap of sorts in front of them. 

“But if they don’t buy into that then it’s a complete waste of time. So they are actually the ones here that deserve all the credit. They’ve worked so hard to get to this point now”. 

He added: “11 years ago, when the womans team first got going, they were a kind of separate entity. They wore the club colours, used the same ground but the admin and everything else was completely separate. 

“But a few years ago that all came under the one umbrella. Niall Callaghan - the current chairman - had the foresight to see the benefit of that. We went to Cork twice in three weeks last year and we asked for nothing. 

“Bus, meals and hotels, we were catered for like professional players. We played at Turners Cross and took a 7-0 tanking from Cork City. It wasn’t nice but it kinda showed us the level we need to aspire towards, that’s there are more ceilings there”. 

In regards to Terenure and what they’ll offer, McNulty and his backroom team have done their due diligence. No stones are left to be unturned in that regard. 

Rangers too will have their homework done on their Donegal opponents prior to action at Eamonn Deacy Park in Galway. So McNulty expects the margins to be wafer thin on Saturday. 

“We’ve had them watched of course but they’ll know all about us too. That’s the modern world now when it comes to sport at this level. In fact, a former player of ours, Eimear O’Herlihy, is now involved with Terenure. So it’s a small world.  

“They are a fantastic side. And like I say to the girls all the time, it’ll take a damn good side to beat us. So something will have to give at the weekend and we just hope with the experience, quality and options off the bench we now have, that the decisive break comes our way”.