Tower’s ladies are crowned league champs

ROUND Towers Clondalkin Ladies have been crowned league champions of Division 5 after Castleknock conceded their game against Towers last weekend.

The match would have been a repeat of the cup final they had played the week before where Castleknock emerged victorious in the game.

Both teams finished in the top two in the league beating out the other opposition and will be getting promoted to Division 4 for next year’s campaign. The two sides are no strangers to one another having played each other multiple times over the last number of seasons.

This current team with Towers came into existence five years ago and since then has achieved multiple back to back promotions and league victories.

Coming into Division 4 now, coach of the side Frankie Roebuck expects for the games to be more competitive with a league win or promotion certainly not being a given.

Roebuck is looking forward to his side being involved in more competitive games with Castleknock providing their only real challenge in the league this year.

“We do know that this will be a challenging year ahead of us. We will benefit from all the competitive matches that Division 4 will offer rather than all the uncompetitive matches Division 5 offered us this year.”

The team got to a championship semi final this year where they played Garristown, losing an extremely close game by just three points 4-13 to 3-13.

The team also played Garda Westmanstown who will be playing in Division 3 next season, a result which Roebuck states shows that the team has the ability to play at the higher levels but will need more consistent game time against higher quality opposition to fulfill that potential.

“We do know that this will be a challenging year ahead of us.

‘We will benefit from all the competitive matches that Division 4 will offer rather than all the uncompetitive matches Division 5 offered us this year.

‘That match against Garda Westmanstown would reflect that the potential is there it’s just the consistency to keep that level of performance up.

‘That’s what you’d be looking for getting regular competitive matches in Division 4 where most teams can beat each other. It’s one of the most competitive leagues.”

Roebuck reflected on the season which saw them reach a cup final, a league win and a championship semi final as well as how they can keep the standard high going forward.

“Every team goes into the season hoping to be consistent enough to win a league.

‘We did that. We got to the cup final and we wanted to use different parameters like introducing younger players and giving them game time.

‘We did that. We also wanted to be competitive in the championship and we’re beaten in the semi final very narrowly away in Garristown and just had a period in that game where their experience showed and they could get scores we didn’t get.

‘It’s a case of keeping interest levels high and getting the football/study/work balance right with the girls that most teams face.”