Irish women face tough task against Sweden
This Saturday, Ireland’s senior women will take on Sweden at the National Basketball Arena in the first game of their European Championships.
The game will tip-off at 1.30pm to an expected capacity crowd.
The women are currently at a training camp in Limerick to tie up their final preparations for the weekend.
They will be without former WNBA star, Susan Moran, this year due to work commitments at Saint Joe’s in Philadelphia, where she is currently assistant coach.
“She is devastated that she cannot join the squad this year but did everything she could to make it this weekend,” says coach Ger Tarrant.
Siobhan Kilkenny is another who cannot make the squad this year due to work commitments.
She is now coaching at a university in New York.
Also missing from last year’s squad is Suzanne Maguire who has retired from international basketball.
“She is a big loss but Suzanne has a full-time job and it is hard for those players to get the time off come September,” says Tarrant.
However, they have many strong additions to the team this year. Jillian Aherne returns to the squad after a yearlong absence due to injury.
“She is a big influence and a born leader,” says Tarrant.
Denise Walsh also returns to the team after spending two years travelling in Australia.
“She has been a big loss and we are delighted to have her back” Tarrant says.
Sinead Leahy was also out last year due to a cruciate injury and was another big loss to her club, UL, but she is now back in force and will be a huge help to the Irish side.
Canadian Lynda Guy joins the Irish women after playing professionally in Germany last season and will be a great addition.
Kate Maher and Niamh Dwyer are back for another year. Both preformed outstandingly at the World University Games in August, Dwyer finishing top scorer of the tournament averaging 23.5, while Maher finished the tournament as leading rebounder.
Coach Ger Tarrant knows that Sweden will not be an easy task but “playing to the home crowd is important” and he hopes this will give them an advantage.
“They are a very experienced team. They have been training all summer together and their captain, Nina Barlin, is 38 years old and has been playing competitively for a long time.
“Agga Jablonska is another player to watch out for.
“They played Portugal and England last month and beat them both very well, Portugal by 10 points and England by 40 points.”
Sweden will certainly be the toughest game of the Championships. Having lost to Sweden last year by 25 points (87-62) Ireland’s women have a big deficit to make up in order to qualify for the next round of play-offs.
They will then face two away games, Estonia on September 20 and Luxembourg on September 23, teams Ireland beat significantly last year in the first leg (Estonia 93-71, Luxembourg 90-49).
However, Coach Tarrant is under no illusion: “ Estonia are no pushover either, especially on their home patch.
“We beat them in Limerick last year but they have been putting a lot of time and effort into their underage programme recently.”
The finalised squad is as follows:
4 Michelle Aspell
5 Jillian Aherne
6 Denise Walsh
7 Niamh Dwyer
8 Carmel Kissane
9 Michelle Fahy
10 Linda Guy
11 Maureen Garvey
12 Grainne Dwyer
13 Sinead Leahy
14 Caroline Nixon
15 Kate Maher.
