Hansberry thrilled with award

It’s a league full of exciting young players, but Emma Hansberry was crowned the Young Player of the Year on Tuesday at the WNL awards ceremony. 

The dynamic midfielder said she was “thrilled” to receive the award, after what has been a tough season for Castlebar Celtic.

“I was really nervous coming up here thinking about it but I’m delighted now that I got it” she added.

“It’s only down to my teammates at Castlebar and my manager Jeremy Dee that I got this, it’s thanks to them.”

Her achievement is made all the more impressive by the competition she faced, with fellow nominees Katie McCabe and Cherelle Khassal just two of the young players who took the league by storm this season.

Hansberry feels that the league’s abundance of talented young players makes it more exciting.

“It’s brilliant to have the mix of the young and the senior players,” she said, “it makes it all the more interesting. It’s very competitive throughout the WNL.”

 “So I was delighted to get this, considering the standard that’s in the league.”

It was a tough season for Castlebar Celtic. They finished second from bottom, after a promising start to the season. Hansberry pointed to the loss of key players after Christmas as a key factor in their post-break slump. 

“We lost  a lot of players after Christmas through injury” the midfielder said. “I think there was about seven of our starting team injured at one stage. And then we lost girls who went travelling as well, so we had to regroup after Christmas. That was tough I suppose, with the numbers that we have. But we got through the season, and we’re happy with it so next year we’ll build from that.”

Next season, can’t come quickly enough for Hansberry, either. “I can’t wait for the new season already” she said. 

“Knowing that there’s going to be new teams in it, it’ll be a better experience and a lot more competitive next year. Next year we’ll know a lot more about it and we’ll be more prepared.”