New captain Fox aiming to lead Galway WFC to silverware this

Galway WFC manager Billy Clery is targeting silverware for the club this season – and knowingly or otherwise, he has picked a captain for the season who knows what it is like to lead a team to a national title.

Shauna Fox wore the armband when Dominican College Taylor’s Hill became only the second Galway school to capture the FAI Senior Girls’ Schools cup title seven years ago this month, back in March 2014 in Sligo when defeating Moville College Donegal on penalties.

Fox scored in that shootout, and repeated the feat the following year when Taylor’s Hill became the first-ever side to retain the title, with the win again coming courtesy of a penalty shootout success, this time against Loreto Kilkenny in Mullingar.

“God, that was a while ago! They were great games, we had a great team, it was lovely to win the title twice,” says the woman who will lead her side out for the first game of the season, at home to Cork City WFC on Saturday March 27.

Fox – who also captained Taylors Hill to a Connacht camogie title – is not the only member of the Galway WFC squad that has happy memories of those back-to-back SFAI Cup wins, as Elle O’Flaherty and Aoife Walsh were also part of that double-winning squad. Both scored in the 2014 shootout success; with Flaherty also scoring in the shootout in the 2015 win, as did Fox, who also scored from the spot in normal time to tie up the game at 2-2 and ultimately send it to extra time, and penalties.

One of the keys to that success was the close bond in that squad, fostered by the management team of Geoff Drea, Dave Grehan, and John Power. Building similar relationships in a squad in the midst of a global pandemic is not such an easy task, but while striking a sombre tone, Fox says these most difficult of time have actually helped strength the bond within the squad.

“It is great to be back in at training, training during the week and now having matches to look forward to at the weekend. To have that routine in place, that is very important – I’ll be honest, many of us, like many many people, many of us are lonely these days with lockdown and restrictions on movement and on visiting people, so to be able to get out and see the girls, to have that relationship with people, we are delighted,” she says.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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