Gary Cronin focusing on the finer details with Ireland ahead of World Cup qualifiers

Republic of Ireland MNT manager Heimir Hallgrímsson and Gary Cronin, who was recently appointed as assistant coach of the WNT assistant coach, were asked the same question this week – what’s the difference between coaching men and women players.

They provided slightly different answers, mainly because Hallgrímsson has experience coaching the ÍBV women’s team, while Thursday was Cronin’s first formal session with a women’s squad.

“The women listen, so be careful what you are saying,” said Hallgrímsson. “It is more psychological than anything else. At half-time, you say ‘we must be better at this or that’ – in the women’s dressingroom everyone thinks ‘he is talking about me’, the men think ‘he is talking about someone else’.

“That is the difference, [women] take more in. You can challenge the boys more without it affecting them. You have to be smarter in what you are saying [to women players].”

Cronin’s football experience is on the men’s side of the game, having previously held managerial roles at Bray Wanderers and Longford Town, while the 46-year-old’s last job was as an assistant coach during Declan Devine’s two seasons at Bohemians.

“They’re hungry for the finer detail, which is great,” he said in response to the question on the difference between training men and women. “When I did the research for the role, and spoke to football people that have worked in the women’s game, that was the common theme.”

Cronin played and coached against Colin Healy, who held the assistant coach role under Eileen Gleeson for Ireland’s Euro 2025 qualification campaign, so it would make sense for the old rivals to share notes..

“There are certain coaches I will speak to after camp, when I have experiences I can share with them. I do plan on Colin being one of those (people) to bounce off.

“There is huge respect from the girls for Colin. Having played against him for a couple of seasons, I can understand why. (He’s) a respected and loved coach – he has set a high bar for me.”

Cronin has done so much research ahead of Ireland’s opening World Cup qualifiers – facing France in Tallaght on Tuesday before playing the Netherlands in Utrecht next Saturday – that he said he’s “dreaming” about the opposition.

“The French are very aggressive. There are certain weaknesses that we feel we might be able to exploit but they’ve pace and power in the attacking areas, all over the park really.

“The Dutch are very possession based. They move the ball really well, try and move you out of your structure.”

“We’ve got to be realistic,” Cronin added. “We’re going to spend a lot of time without the ball, we’ve got to accept that. Then we’ve got to be an Irish team without the ball, which is hard to break down, hard to beat, working together.

“The girls have a really good work ethic. We’ve got to play to our strengths. I think most Irish teams are like that. We’ve also got to realise that when we do get the football that we have our ways of trying to hurt the opposition.

“We have to be really, really tight without the ball.”