Galway WFC has appointed Phil Trill as youth development manager.
Trill will take charge of Galway WFC's U17 and U19 teams in national competitions which are expected to commence shortly.
Eager to develop young talent in the region, Galway WFC's Shauna Brennan, Nicole McNamara, and Abbie Callanan are all named in Dave Connell's Republic of Ireland U19 squad for this week's friendly series against Northern Ireland.
The three promising teenagers all featured in Stephen Lally's first win as Galway WFC boss against Cork City at Turners Cross on Saturday. Goals from Chloe Moloney and Aoife Thompson ensured Galway ended a four match losing streak in impressive fashion Leeside.
That so many players continue to emerge is a source of optimism for Trill. "It has really opened my eyes, I came into the female game four years ago, just the level of skill development and competency that the girls have," Trill says.
"Traditionally you had the likes of Salthill Devon, who had numerous internationals and they were winning Irish cups. You also had Mervue in the past and in the past couple of years you really have great work being done by all clubs, who are pushing the development standards. We have been there or thereabouts in terms of U17, we have quite a good record, only losing five games in three seasons.
"The standard of player coming in year on year in the west is incredible. We have a number of girls in for international assessment at U16 - two of those girls are actually U15, who are going in trying to becoming U16 internationals. We did a stat the last day about the number of players who have come through our U17 set-up into the senior set-up and it is more than 50 per cent."
Trill is excited about Galway WFC's future and firmly believes that the WNL can grow further. "We are really changing that narrative here that you have to go to Dublin to play elite football," he adds.
"That narrative has really dissipated very quickly over the past number of years and it is down to the great work being done by our club, the great work being done by Treaty, and Sligo Rovers, who will be looking to come in next year. It is developing and the standard is really improving."
