Alan Murphy's Galway WFC remain busy preparing for the upcoming WNL campaign with a pre-season friendly scheduled for Saturday against Treaty United at Dangan (1pm ).
Two former Galway United managers will be in charge of the teams with Don O'Riordan recently installed as Treaty boss. "We have Treaty this weekend, it is nice for me in terms of a blast from the past," Murphy says.
"It all started for me under Don O'Riordan so it will be nice for me to be on the sideline with Don. I learned a lot from him many years ago. That will be an interesting one. Again we will have nearly a full complement this weekend for Treaty. So there will be players that we need to get minutes into their legs."
Shauna Brennan, Kate Slevin, Nicole McNamara, Therese Kinnevey, and new signing Jenna Slattery will report for Republic of Ireland U19 duty next week with goalkeeper Leah Hayes-Coen also on standby for that squad. "Fortunately or unfortunately - whichever way you want to call it - we will have several players missing for 10 days," Murphy adds.
"Shauna, Kate, Nicole, and Therese, and now Jenna, and Leah is on standby - this is a tournament and training camp the U19s have in Turkey. Obviously it is great to have that amount of players in contention to be playing in the U19 European Championships, but it is not ideal to be preparing for the season either.
"We will deal with that, we will also have Sav [McCarthy] and Julie Ann [Russell] with the seniors - trying to make that squad so we could be down a few over the next 10 days. It is what it is."
Galway WFC defeated Sligo Rovers 5-0 at the weekend with Murphy optimistic. "We are working on different aspects of our own game and our own play that we want to bring into the season," he says. "Some good, some bad, but we have loads to work on."
Promising teenager Slattery is a significant addition according to Murphy. "Jenna has been with us since the start of pre-season, she has done really well," Murphy says.
"I had a lot of research done on Jenna, what she can bring to the group. Not just her performances last year, her general attitude and application.
"It is a no brainer and it is a real coup to get her in. We are hoping to add more quality to the squad over the next while. It is still a work in progress."
