Even as a national team manager, Carla Ward is not going to bite her tongue. It’s not in her make-up.
The Ireland head coach readily admits this tendency to say what’s on her mind has got her into trouble in the past, but she’s not about to change.
‘I could just sit here and be a puppet or I could just be me and answer your questions,’ Ward remarked towards the end of a lively press conference in Abbotstown, where subjects ranged from the lack of leadership within the squad, to the lingering hurt over the Euro 2025 playoff defeat, to the possibility of Colin Healy returning as part of her coaching staff.
Manager Carla Ward during a Republic of Ireland women squad announcement press conference at the FAI Headquarters in Dublin. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Ward’s candour is refreshing, especially considering some of the mixed and garbled messaging that comes out of the FAI, but such honesty with the media needs to work in tandem with results on the pitch.
As was evident with the men’s team this week, winning matches is the only thing that matters in international football and when Ireland take to the field in Crete on Friday week, the players will do so as a team in desperate need of erasing their most recent result, a shock 4-0 shellacking in Slovenia.
Such was the humiliating nature of that defeat, Ward held one-to-one meetings with each player and allowed them to thrash out what went wrong in Slovenia and was surprised to discover how many of the team were still hurting badly from the 3-2 aggregate defeat to Wales, which denied them a place in this summer’s Euros.
‘I had individual review meetings with every single one of them after the Slovenia camp where we went over everything, all of the plan for Slovenia,’ Ward explained.
Maja Sternad of Slovenia in action against Tyler Toland, left, and Megan Connolly during the UEFA Women’s Nations League B match between Slovenia and Ireland. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
‘We gave them an opportunity for an open forum which was really powerful and then what we did was create all of the Slovenia prep, put it on; they’ve all watched the game and gave feedback. We wouldn’t normally do that, but we did it differently because I thought it was really important that we can hit the ground running with Greece.
‘What we will do in the first day of camp is correlate all of their feedback, thoughts and feelings and bring them together. I love that, because naturally different bits and pieces come out in each other.
‘They didn’t reveal anything I hadn’t thought about, but I didn’t realise how much hurt there was. You always know there’s going to be some. There were some that were really hurt by not qualifying. That was probably a stand-out.’
As she did immediately after the loss to Slovenia, Ward accepted responsibility for how poorly the team played.
‘I tried new things in the Slovenia game because I wanted to try new things and I got the answers,’ said the former Aston Villa and Birmingham boss.
Republic of Ireland head coach Carla Ward reacts during the UEFA Women’s Nations League B match between Slovenia and Ireland. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
‘This could be difficult at the start, messy in the middle and beautiful at the end. I said it was evolution in my first press conference and we need to be carrying on. But I think now there has to be an element of a transition here.
‘It’s a funny thing to say but I think it was a blessing in disguise. If you win 1-0, you probably don’t find out an awful lot and it can mask. We found out a lot about where we’re at, the reality of the position we’re in.’
Ward again lamented that Niamh Fahey, Julie-Ann Russell and Diane Caldwell, three of the biggest leaders in the dressing-room, have stepped away from international football while Louise Quinn’s hip issue keeps her out of these two games.
She is working at a way to keep the three recent retirees involved, maybe in a player liaison role.
‘They’ve given a lot to Irish football, how do we give back at this point in their careers which can work both ways? For example, I spoke to one of them about potentially coming in and being a player liaison, a link between players and staff and a sounding board for the players, particularly the senior players. That can be powerful, really powerful.
‘It’s something I’m continuing to try and push. The organisation are on board with it, it’s just the timing for the players because they’re still playing at club, bar Julie-Ann. It’s just finding the right moment for them as well.’
Carla Ward is missing experienced Ireland stars like Louise Quinn. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
The inclusion of Shelbourne’s Aoibheann Clancy and Celtic’s Saoirse Noonan as new faces indicates there may be a level of transition in this Nations League campaign. But what Ward really wants to see is more players in their mid-20s stepping up as new leaders to replace Fahey, Caldwell and Russell.
‘We are going to play a game with them next week. When I wasn’t a leader, and my manager thought I could be, we did this thing where nobody was allowed to talk on my team apart from me. And what I had to do was talk technical and tactical to lead them.
‘I hated it but it was great because then, when everyone can talk, you continue, so we are going to do a bit of that with some of the younger players. We have spoken to some of them about stepping up and leading, but we need to give them the platform to lead.’
Ward also clarified her comments that the team overachieved reaching the 2023 World Cup, suggesting she meant it in a positive manner.
‘I have overachieved my whole career and think I’ve done really well by overachieving. At Sheffield United, I over-achieved. We should have never finished second. At Birmingham, we should have never stayed up. We over-achieved .
‘At Villa, we finished fifth with the second lowest budget in the league and we over-achieved. That’s all positive.
‘What Vera [Pauw] did getting to the World Cup is unbelievably good, and the players. It is part of the reason I came for this job, I love the Irish mentality, love the willingness to get the extra percent from the absolute heart.
‘That use of the word, some people might look at it as a negative, I look at it as an absolute positive, I have over-achieved my whole career.
‘Look at the World Cup coming up, there are 11 European spots and we are world number 26. If we make the World Cup, we are going to over-achieve.’