Continuity key for Portlaoise as they gear up for new Women’s Super League season

FOR Portlaoise Panthers Women’s Super League team head coach, Peter O’Sullivan, continuity will be a huge factor in his side’s endeavour to make another serious impact in the top ranks of Irish women’s basketball this season.

Having managed to avoid an immediate drop back to Division One in 2023/24, Portlaoise pushed on, finishing the 2024/25 regular season in fifth place and subsequently qualifying for the play-off quarter-finals where they were ultimately edged out 80-73 by Trinity Meteors.

O’Sullivan will be hoping his players can match, if not better, that run, and believes that retaining the vast majority of last season’s panel will help significantly in that bid.

Ireland senior international, Amy Dooley is the most significant absentee from the Portlaoise squad this season, the Carlow woman averaging 10.9 points and 12.6 rebounds in their last league campaign, while, in their one single appearance in the Paudie O’Connor National Cup against Trinity Meteors in November, the talented centre served up 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

In an effort to offset that loss, O’Sullivan has brought in 6’3” Spanish forward/centre, Christy Ojide Boiko this summer and the Portlaoise boss is hopeful she can make a her presence felt from the off in this season’s campaign, which will start with a road trip to Cork to face Fr. Mathews on Saturday 4 October.

“Amy is a massive loss, but we’ve recruited Christy who’ll be our centre,” O’Sullivan told the Laois Nationalist. “She would have played college basketball in America for a few years and she’s only coming out of college now.

“She's a big athletic player and works well around the basket, so we’re just hoping that she hits the ground running,” he said.

O’Sullivan is happy that he has managed to keep the changes in personnel to a minimum, and insists that, in itself, is a major plus as they look to keep pace with the big guns of Irish women’s basketball.

Indeed, the return of Americans, Alyssa Velles and Jessica Fressle, along with the likes of Lynn Tunnah and Ciara Byrne is sure to provide Portlaoise with the stability they need in their attempt to build on the progress made last season.

“When I came in, I was happy with the squad that I had, so we brought back the two Americans [Fressle and Velles], along with the Irish girls who were there,” said O’Sullivan.

“With Sarah Fleming [shooting guard] back from injury, it’s like having a new recruit. She's back to full fitness, which is great to see.” Looking ahead to their Women’s Super League opener against Fr. Mathew’s, O’Sullivan said: “You really don't know what you're coming up against.

“You don't know if they're going to have any new players, but you're expecting them to have at least one new American.

“The first game is always a feeler game, but I suppose after the way we finished last year and with the same team we have this year, we'd be confident going into the first game this year, even though it is an away game.

“Our aim would have been to make a play-off spot last season, so to finish in fifth, it doesn’t leave us much room to manoeuvre in terms of doing better.

“We’ll be looking to finish higher, although you're not going to make unrealistic expectations of winning the league, but we’ll be hoping that we can finish higher than fifth and hopefully get a home quarter-final. That would be great this year,” he said.

Certainly Portlaoise took some major scalps in last season’s campaign, surmounting the likes of Glanmire, Fr. Mathews, eventual Super League runners-up, St. Paul’s and 2023/24 National Cup winners, Brunell.

And they will be heading into the new season on the back of a decent showing in the pre-season tournament to which they played host in St. Mary’s Hall last weekend.

While they did lose out to Glanmire in their opening game, they carded wins over UL Huskies, Swords Thunder and University of Galway Mystics in their remaining fixtures.

It was a good run-out for the Portlaoise players and an opportunity for O’Sullivan to see new arrival, Ojide Boiko in action with the rest of the team.

The Panthers boss was impressed, telling The Laois Nationalist, “Christy is flying it. She is what we needed. She's big and athletic, she runs the floor well and is very good under the basket.

“Again, there's always things that the girls will work on with her as well, just to make it more efficient and try to get her more into the game.

“Last year we would have been a shooting team, and we probably still are again this year, but, at least if that's not an option, we've a big plus inside now with her under the board” he said.

While quick to point out that a lot of last weekend’s opposition were not at their strongest, O’Sullivan was pleased with the workout his players got.

“From our point of view, we're just trying to get games under our belt,” he said. “Seeing as there wasn’t as many Super League teams available, this was the competition that we had.

“It'd be nice to see some of the other Super League teams before the start of the season, just to see what they’ve brought in themselves.

“We're expecting a competitive year and I don't think there’ll be any easy games. This year looks sets to be competitive right across the board,” he predicted.