2022 Women's National League (Ireland)

Women's National League

Season	2022
Dates	5 March 2022 – 29 October 2022
Champions	Shelbourne 3rd title
Matches played	135
Goals scored	457 (3.39 per match)
Top goalscorer	Áine O'Gorman (22 goals)
Biggest home win	Peamount United 8–1 Cork City (23 April 2022)
Biggest away win	Treaty United 0–10 Shelbourne (2 July 2022)
Highest scoring	Treaty United 0–10 Shelbourne (2 July 2022)
← 2021 2023 →

The 2022 Women's National League known as the SSE Airtricity WNL for sponsorship reasons,^[1] was the 12th season of the Women's National League, the highest women's association football league in the Republic of Ireland since its establishment in 2011. Expansion team Sligo Rovers competed for the first time, bringing the league up to ten clubs.^[2] Shelbourne, as defending champions from the previous season, won the 2022 league by defeating Wexford Youths on the final day of the season.^[3]

In July 2022 Shelbourne announced the signing of highly-decorated United States international player Heather O'Reilly, who emerged from retirement after two years. The transfer brought substantial publicity and increased the profile of the league.^[4]

Teams

Cork City

Galway

Wexford Youths

Athlone Town

Treaty United

Sligo Rovers

Dublin

Dublin teams
Bohemians
DLR Waves
Peamount Utd.
Shelbourne

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Locations of Women's National League teams

Bohemians

Shelbourne

Peamount United

DLR Waves

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Locations of Dublin Women's National League teams

Team	Home town/suburb	Stadium	2021 finish
Athlone Town	Athlone	Athlone Town Stadium	7th
Bohemians	Dublin (Phibsborough)	Dalymount Park	6th
Cork City	Cork	Turners Cross	8th
DLR Waves	Dún Laoghaire	UCD Bowl	4th
Galway	Galway	Eamonn Deacy Park	5th
Peamount United	Newcastle, South Dublin	Greenogue	2nd
Shelbourne	Dublin (Drumcondra)	Tolka Park	1st
Sligo Rovers	Sligo	The Showgrounds	NA
Treaty United	Limerick	Markets Field	9th
Wexford Youths	Crossabeg	Ferrycarrig Park	3rd

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Athlone Town	Tommy Hewitt	Laurie Ryan	Umbro	Palfinger
Bohemians	Sean Byrne	Sinéad Taylor	O'Neills	Premier Property Group
Cork City	Paul Farrell	Becky Cassin	Adidas	Jackie Lennox Chip Shop
DLR Waves	Graham Kelly	Jessica Gleeson	Jako	CDS - Clare Distribution Services
Galway	Alan Murphy	Savannah McCarthy	Acerbis	Só Hotels
Peamount United	James O'Callaghan	Áine O'Gorman	O'Neills	SPAR Kelly's Newcastle
Shelbourne	Noel King	Pearl Slattery	Umbro	Technological University Dublin
Sligo Rovers	Steve Feeney	Emma Hansberry	Joma	Avant Money
Treaty United	Don O'Riordan	Michaela Mitchell	Umbro	None
Wexford Youths	Stephen Quinn	Kylie Murphy	Jako	Energia

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Galway	Stephen Lally	Redeployed	12 December 2021	Pre-season	Alan Murphy	12 December 2021[5]
Sligo Rovers				Pre-season	Steve Feeney	15 December 2021[6]
Treaty United				Pre-season	Don O'Riordan	29 December 2021[7]
Cork City	Paul Farrell	Resignation[8]	9 May 2022	9th	Jess Lawton (interim)	10 May 2022[9]
Cork City	Jess Lawton (interim)	End of interim period	31 May 2022	9th	Danny Murphy	31 May 2022[10]
Treaty United	Don O'Riordan	Resignation[11]	7 November 2022	10th

Format

The ten teams played each other three times, with a mid-season break from 12 June to 1 July 2022.^[12]

League table

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shelbourne	27	19	3	5	66	13	+53	60	Qualification for the UEFA Women's Champions League
2	Athlone Town	27	18	4	5	53	24	+29	58
3	Peamount United	27	17	5	5	80	26	+54	56
4	Wexford Youths	27	17	5	5	61	33	+28	56
5	DLR Waves	27	11	7	9	51	30	+21	40
6	Galway	27	11	6	10	48	38	+10	39
7	Bohemians	27	10	6	11	36	35	+1	36
8	Sligo Rovers	27	6	2	19	32	66	−34	20
9	Cork City	27	6	0	21	25	82	−57	18
10	Treaty United	27	0	2	25	5	110	−105	2

Updated to match(es) played on 30 October 2022. Source: FAI Women’s National League, Soccerway, Extratime.com

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27
Athlone Town	6	6	7	5	7	8	5	5	4	4	3	3	3	4	3	2	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	2
Bohemians	7	7	8	6	8	7	9	8	7	7	8	7	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	7	7	7	7
Cork City	8	8	9	9	9	9	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
DLR Waves	2	2	2	4	4	5	4	4	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	6	6	6	5
Galway	3	3	5	7	5	6	6	6	6	6	5	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6
Peamount United	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	3	4	5	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	4	3
Shelbourne	5	5	3	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	1
Sligo Rovers	10	10	6	8	6	4	7	7	8	8	7	8	7	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Treaty United	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
Wexford Youths	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	2	4

Source: Extratime.com, Soccerway.com
  = Leader and UEFA Women's Champions League;   = Second;   = Third

Results

Matches 1–24

Shelbourne playing Cork City at Tolka Park

Teams play each other twice.

Home \ Away	ATH	BOH	COR	DLR	GAL	PEA	SHE	SLI	TRE	WEX
Athlone Town	—	2–1	1–0	2–1	3–1	1–2	0–2	5–0	4–1	1–2
Bohemians	1–1	—	3–1	0–0	0–3	2–1	0–3	2–1	3–0	0–3
Cork City	1–4	2–1	—	0–3	0–3	0–7	0–4	1–2	2–1	1–2
DLR Waves	0–1	0–0	6–0	—	0–1	1–1	1–0	3–2	5–0	0–0
Galway	0–0	1–1	5–1	1–1	—	0–4	0–2	5–2	3–0	2–2
Peamount United	0–1	1–1	8–1	3–2	2–1	—	0–4	0–3[a]	5–1	4–0
Shelbourne	1–1	1–0	7–0	4–0	1–1	1–0	—	1–0	5–0	0–1
Sligo Rovers	1–2	1–3	2–0	0–3	1–2	0–5	3–2	—	3–1	1–0
Treaty United	0–2	0–4	0–4	0–4	0–2	0–7	0–10	0–0	—	0–3
Wexford	2–1	3–1	5–1	2–0	1–1	3–3	0–2	2–0	3–1	—

Source: Extratime.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 19–27

Teams play each other once.

Home \ Away	ATH	BOH	COR	DLR	GAL	PEA	SHE	SLI	TRE	WEX
Athlone Town	—	—	—	—	1–0	0–2	2–0	4–2	—	2–1
Bohemians	1–2	—	—	2–1	1–2	—	—	—	—	2–5
Cork City	1–2	0–1	—	—	1–0	0–5	—	3–2	—	—
DLR Waves	1–1	—	1–0	—	—	1–1	1–2	—	7–0	—
Galway	—	—	—	2–3	—	0–6	1–2	—	—	0–1
Peamount United	—	1–0	—	—	—	—	—	2–0	6–0	3–3
Shelbourne	—	0–0	2–1	—	—	0–1	—	2–0	4–0	—
Sligo Rovers	—	0–2	—	1–5	2–5	—	—	—	1–1	—
Treaty United	0–7	0–4	0–3	—	0–6	—	—	—	—	—
Wexford	—	—	5–1	4–1	—	—	0–4	5–2	3–0	—

Source: Extratime.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Top scorers

As of 30 October 2022.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Áine O'Gorman	Peamount United	22
2	Emily Corbet	Athlone Town	20
3	Stephanie Roche	Peamount United	16
4	Ellen Molloy	Wexford Youths	16
5	Kylie Murphy	Wexford Youths	15

Source: Women's National League

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month		References
	Player	Club
March	Stephanie Roche	Peamount United	[14]
April	Laurie Ryan	Athlone Town	[15]
May	Jessica Ziu	Shelbourne	[16]
June/July	Emma Doherty	Sligo Rovers	[17]
August/September	Ciara Rossiter	Wexford Youths	[18]
October	Alex Kavanagh	Shelbourne	[19]

Annual awards

^[20]

Award	Winner	Club
WNL Player of the Year	Emily Corbet	Athlone Town
Young Player of the Year	Jessie Stapleton	Shelbourne
Manager of the Year	Tommy Hewitt	Athlone Town
Bank of Ireland Golden Gloves	Amanda Budden	Shelbourne
Buy4Pets Online Goal of the Year	Aoife Brennan	Sligo Rovers
Services to the Women's National League	Stephen Moran and Mick O'Shea

WNL Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Rachael Kelly (Bohemians)
Defenders	Jessica Gargan (Shelbourne)				Jessica Hennessy (Athlone Town)				Shauna Fox (Shelbourne)
Midfielders	Áine O'Gorman (Peamount United)	Ellen Molloy (Wexford Youths)	Muireann Devaney (Athlone Town)	Jessie Stapleton (Shelbourne)	Ciara Rossiter (Wexford Youths)
Forwards	Emma Doherty (Sligo Rovers)						Emily Corbet (Athlone Town)

Broadcasting

In February 2021 the Football Association of Ireland announced that all WNL matches would be streamed free of charge on the new LOITV platform.^[21] In February 2022 the TG4 Irish language television network confirmed an intention to broadcast nine WNL matches in 2022.^[22] Ultimately 10 games were broadcast live,^[23] which attracted over 500,000 viewers.^[24]

See also

• 2022 FAI Women's Cup

Notes

1. The Football Association of Ireland awarded a 3–0 win to Sligo Rovers after Peamount United fielded an unregistered player. The original score was 6–0 to Peamount United.^[13]

References

1. "SSE Airtricity extends title sponsorship of League of Ireland". The Irish Times. 20 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
2. McDonnell, Daniel (10 December 2021). "Sligo Rovers to make step up to Women's National League for 2022 season". Irish Independent. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
3. "Shelbourne sink Wexford to retain Women's National League crown". rte.ie. 29 October 2022.
4. Scully, Michael (4 November 2022). "Madie Gibson on coming face to face with her hero Heather O'Reilly in the Women's FAI Cup final". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
5. Corcoran, Paul (12 December 2021). "Galway appoint Alan Murphy as manager". Extra Time. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
6. "Back home! Steve Feeney appointed manager of first ever Sligo Rovers WNL senior team". The Sligo Champion. 15 December 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
7. Fallon, John (29 December 2021). "Don O'Riordan appointed as Treaty's WNL team manager". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
8. "Paul Farrell Steps Down". Cork City F.C. 9 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
9. "Jess Lawton appointed caretaker manager of women's first team". Cork City F.C. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
10. O'Connell, Barbara (30 May 2022). "Former Cork City star Danny Murphy is the new manager of the Cork City women's team". The Echo (Cork newspaper). Retrieved 3 June 2022.
11. Kinsella, Colm (7 November 2022). "Treaty United begins search for new women's senior manager". Limerick Leader. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
12. "SSE Airtricity Women's National League 2022 Season Fixture List" (PDF). Football Association of Ireland. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
13. Donnelly, David (3 April 2022). "Peamount United accept award of walkover to Sligo Rovers for fielding ineligible player". Dublin Live. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
14. Nolan, Hazel (7 April 2022). "Roche lands WNL Player of the Month award". fm104.ie. FM104.
15. "Athlone Town skipper Laurie Ryan named WNL April Player of the Month". RTÉ Sport. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
16. "Jessica Ziu lands May player of the month award". RTÉ Sport. 8 June 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
17. "Doherty wins SSE Airtricity WNL Player of the Month". Football Association of Ireland. 18 August 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
18. "Rossiter crowned WNL Player of the Month". RTÉ Sport. 28 September 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
19. "Alex Kavanagh scoops Player of the Month award". RTÉ Sport. 10 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
20. "Double delight for Athlone at WNL awards". RTÉ Sport. 24 November 2022. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
21. "FAI announces new broadcast deals". Football Association of Ireland. 25 February 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
22. @LoiWomen (9 February 2022). "CONFIRMED | @SportTG4 is back for 2022 9️⃣ #WNL games will be broadcast live 📺 this year" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
23. Casey, Gavan (20 July 2022). "TG4 to broadcast 10 live games from the Women's National League this season". The42.ie. TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
24. Scully, Michael (29 October 2022). "TG4 viewing figures for Sacar na mBan to break through the half million mark tonight". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 5 November 2022.

External links

• Official website