CIANA Brogan will lead Bonagee United out onto the field today in Galway but she admits that the captaincy was far from her thoughts at the start of the season.
Bonagee lost a key leader in Kaneshia McKinney to injury and then the second-in-line Caitlin Hume wasn’t able to devote as much time to the team this year.
Galdonagh woman Ciana Brogan has stepped up and taken on the responsibility of the armband and she says she gets plenty of support from her teammates.
“Kaneshia has been here for a few years and she did her ACL very unfortunately on a skiing trip.
“This is only my second season so I wasn’t expecting anything.
“Caitlin Hume was vice-captain but she had to take a step back with academic commitments and stuff.
“Chris (McNulty) spoke to me about it and asked if it would be something I would be interested in and I was really honoured that he had asked me when I was only at the club for a shot time.
“I was delighted to take on the role, and obviously Kaneshia and the rest of the group are very supportive, and I don’t really feel like it’s been a big step up.”
Brogan says her love for football was developed from a young age.
“I went to a small primary school in Drumoghill. There were only four boys in my class and me so if I didn’t play football I wouldn’t have got to play anything at lunchtime.
“I started playing and I came up with Lagan Harps through my youth career and really enjoyed it.
“It wouldn’t be big in my family or anything, but I found I was decent enough and I put a lot of time into it when I was younger and I enjoyed it.”
Bonagee won the Donegal Women’s League title comfortably last season and they are likely to dominant the domestic scene again this year, as they are able to rest players and still see off their opposition.
Local teams are struggling to compete with them so progress in the national competition was a clear objective this year.
“The league is kind of struggling for numbers and you don’t really get what you need.
“It is competitive at times but it isn’t necessarily what we need.
“This was the competition from the start of the season that we were focused on.
“Obviously we got to the semi-final last year and we were disappointed with how that went so the target this year was to progress in this competition and make a name for ourselves outside of Donegal.”
The 23-year-old admits she doesn’t know much about Terenure Rangers.
That doesn’t concern her as she has trust in her Bonagee teammates and they want to do the club proud this week.
“I don’t know a lot about them to be honest. I just know that they are from Dublin.
“I have heard that they are a good team and you’d expect that they are when they have reached this stage of the competition.
“I don’t want to delve too much into thinking about them. We have a strong team and it will take a good side to beat us.
“It would be brilliant if we could win. The whole community at Bonagee is so supportive of the ladies and the girls coming up and it would be great for soccer in Donegal.”
BONAGEE UNITED
Roisin McCafferty – Goalkeeper
Catherine Fletcher – Goalkeeper
Eva Harvey – Defender
Amy Thompson – Defender
Eimear Sweeney – Defender
Catherine Grier – Defender
Caitlin Hume – Defender
Zara Shortt – Defender
Katherine Hopkins – Defender
Ciana Brogan – Midfielder
Amanda Callaghan – Midfielder
Siobhan Sweeney – Midfielder
Natalie McFadden – Midfielder
Niamh Hanley – Midfielder
Amy Callaghan – Midfielder
Julie McCloy – Midfielder
Mollie Page – Midfielder
Geraldine McLaughlin – Midfielder
Bronagh Gallagher – Forward
Caoimhne Heron – Forward
Deborah Kerrigan – Forward
Caitlin Fletcher – Forward
Rachel Bogan-Alison – Forward
MANAGEMENT
Chris McNulty
Bosco Gallagher
Kaneshia McKinney
Mickey McGlynn
Orla McGlynn
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