“I sometimes really struggle with confidence. Three weeks ago I was thinking that I wasn't gonna play at Shels like - I didn't think I was gonna start.”
Less than a minute into my call with Shelbourne striker Kate Mooney, it's clear that she's an open book.
"I could dwell on that for the rest of the season. God, I was dwelling on it all weekend," she admits when I ask about Shelbourne's narrow loss to Shamrock Rovers in the 2025 Women's Premier Division curtain raiser.
Mooney drew first blood in the Dublin Derby, scoring within the first minute - her quickest? Not quite. (She once scored in under 30 seconds for DLR Waves.)
Following The Hoops second-half equaliser, the Tolka tacticians had several chances to convert and did - a Noelle Murray special disallowed in the 65th minute.
The sting of Kate O’Reilly’s last-gasp winner is
sharply felt as Mooney, her voice heavy, reflects on the aftermath.
“We were all feeling the exact same emotions and feelings after it like…” she says. “Just very disappointed and frustrated so it was good that we kind of just went away and spent time by ourselves and then regrouped.
“On Monday we got back into training and we watched the analysis. We all talked about it as a group and afterwards Eoin (Wearen) just said like ‘This is over now. We're not wasting our whole week thinking about this. That game is done, we're moving on to the next’ - and that's our full focus.”
Still, I sense that the post-Dublin Derby chatter has yet to fully subside in the number eleven’s mind.
In a post match interview with club media, the Howth native held nothing back when it came to her assessment of her performance up top.
“We created a lot of chances that I personally could have put away,” she reflected. “I have to take them. It's quite frustrating as a striker when you don't. We go down and it's 2-1 and I've not taken the chances before all that and finished off the game. I'm going to start firing in the goals in training and get myself back for Waterford.”
Her frustration reveals much about the young attackers mindset.
A drive for perfection and a willingness to take full accountability go hand in hand with anyone striving to become a master of their craft - Mooney shies away from neither.
After returning to Shelbourne in July of last year following a brief spell abroad, the former Rook has been prolific in attack, earning her place as a regular starter in the senior squad - her innate instinct and timing around the box netting The Red 12 goals across 11 games.
Yet as our conversation continues, I learn that holding oneself to such high standards comes at a cost.
“I sometimes really struggle with confidence,” she confides. “Only about three weeks ago I was thinking that I wasn't gonna play at Shels like - I didn't think I was gonna start.”
“Alex (Kavanagh)... my best friend…she would know me very well. She just pulled me aside being like ‘OK, I know something's wrong, so I just opened up and I was just like look I'm just feeling sh*t towards football at the moment and she was like ‘right let's go, we're going to do a shooting session with Cian (Kavanagh’s brother.)
“It just happens every so often… it drops and then you have to keep building yourself back up again. I'm sure every footballer has it where just a few training sessions aren't going your way…you're in your own head and then you just have to kind of gain it back again.”
Both on and off the pitch, I ask Mooney how her mind processes a game.
“I actually don't think that much going into a game,” she explains. “But while I'm playing I suss things out in like the first 10-15 minutes. I’ll be able to be like ‘right okay, I'm not getting much joy out of this centre-back, let me swap with Noelle (Murray) here and try to get a bit of joy over to the other centre-back.’
“Or else I'll be like ‘right this centre-back's not that quick let me see if I can get in behind her’... but saying that though it was like half-time against Rovers and I didn't realize Scarlett (Herron) was left-footed and I was pushing her onto her left foot. I could have pushed her onto her right foot more...”
Shelbourne lost only one league game last season.
To lose in their opener, in the manner in which they did, gives further context to the forwards ruminations.
To Kate Mooney, football, and how Shelbourne perform, means the world...
The centre of everything
A qualified nurse and DCU graduate, Mooney has recently traded the unpredictability of hospital shifts for a standard 9-to-5 job – all in pursuit of her passion for the game.
“I work as a Home Care supervisor,” she says. “It's tough [to balance] but like that's why I took on this job - so that I could play football. I honestly have been working my life around football to be honest.
“Even when I was doing nursing I remember I was at Peamount and I had thirteen hour shifts, was going to training after them, doing night shifts and playing games after…but James (O’Callaghan) at Peamount was so good to me back then. I could be a nurse for the rest of my life but I can't play football for the rest of my life.”
The twenty-five year olds grá for soccer bloomed when her granddad introduced her to Howth Celtic F.C as a child.
“I lived with my nanny and my granddad and my mom,” she says. “My granddad was a really good footballer for East Wall so he brought me down and I was obsessed from then on. I looked up to my granddad a lot so yeah…I really just adored him and that's why I wanted to play football - for him.”
Having transitioned from Howth to Baldoyle United, Mooney was scouted by Shelbourne at the age of twelve, making her senior debut for The Reds at sixteen - ironically, in a position that she now so often terrorises.
“For my senior debut I was a centre-back with Pearlo,” says Mooney with a trace of a smile. “I was left-back, right-back, left-wing. I just don't think I could figure out what position I was - or that any manager could... but somehow I was always a threat for scoring goals. Shaun Maher just popped me in as a striker and I've never looked back really.
“My granddad was actually a centre-back but then he'd also do stints on the wing - like he just said he'd play anywhere once he was on the pitch and then I'd also play anywhere once I'm on the pitch.”
Following a merger with Raheny United in 2015, Shelbourne Ladies secured both the WNL Cup and the FAI Women's Cup - Liverpool ace, Leanne Kiernan, the hat-trick hero.
“I was fighting for a position against Leanne Kiernan,” reasons Mooney. “I was never going to start against her, she's insane… but whenever she was injured or anything like that I'd get my chance and try to help out the team but yeah that Shels squad back then… like the players that we had, most of them are in England now.”
Setbacks
Determined to secure minutes, Mooney signed with DLR Waves, scoring in her first league appearance.
What followed gives weight to the saying, "Make plans, and God laughs."
“It was against Galway United. I'll never forget that day. I had just moved and like I’d never wanted to leave Shels but I was ready to start playing regularly. I had a great pre-season, was flying the first league game, scored, brilliant, amazing. Five minutes later, pop, ACL gone. It was horrible. Yeah...and then I was out for the season.
“The whole nine months was mentally tough and obviously I was heartbroken. It was like you're just waiting for surgery and the waiting is a killer. Then you see everyone going training and playing. Accepting it was the really tough part."
Throughout her recovering, Mooney found solace in small milestones —and her work.
“I went to Santry physio and they were so good. I saw them every week and I had something new every week that I had to work on and build. I was very lucky with mine that it was just a straight ACL - I had no other complications.
“It made me feel really good to help other people too [at work]… I would go home happy that I was able to help someone else. It actually made me be like ‘right Kate you've just hurt your knee like you're not bed bound, you don't have cancer you know it could be a lot worse.’ That's my mindset every day like ‘yeah okay you lost the game against Rovers and then on Monday I'm looking after a person that just had a brain tumor you know.’”
After 9 months, the sharpshooter was physically ready to return to the pitch, but mentally, admits that she wasn’t quite there yet.
“I was so low in confidence because I hadn’t played in so long…” she says. “I just wanted to be the player that I was but I didn't like, give myself a break. I just thought ‘oh yeah no you're back you're grand you're fixed go and play’. I was pulling out of tackles. I was scared to jump and train… I was scared to do anything. It took me a good month to get my first tackle in and yeah, once I did I was flying.”
On her return, she scored 12 goals for DLR before dispatching another ten for the Greenogue Giants (who went on to secure another league title that year.)
Unsurprisingly, it wasn't long before word of her talent reached the UK and The Championship beckoned.
Reasoning that regret would weigh heavier than the fear of the unknown, Mooney bit the bullet and travelled to East Sussex.
Yet despite her initial excitement, a lack of game time once more became the deciding factor that propelled her in another direction.
“I spent six months at Lewes… training full-time and I still wasn't really getting a chance there, so I didn't really see a point to me staying. So I was just like, I'll just go to Hearts and see if I can get game time there and see what happens and it was actually gorgeous to live in Edinburgh as well, so I was very lucky.
“We ended up going to the final as well, which was amazing. At Hearts I was playing a bit of a different role too. I was kind of like a false nine. And I was sitting behind a striker, so that was different for me, but I learned a lot in that aspect of my game too and I was kind of able to use all that I learned at Lewes and then put it into the games at Hearts, which was good.”
A Reds Return
“I felt like I was actually good enough for a Shels standard - especially as a kid, not being good enough. I felt I was good enough then. I felt like a completely different person, to be fair."
Credit: Shelbourne FC media
At the tail end of her season at Hearts, Mooney suffered an injury - this time to her quad.
“We were finished for the season anyway,” she surmises. “So I went home. And then Shels called, and they were like, do you want to come back? I had another year at Hearts [on my contract] and they were kind of changing the team around massively. It just felt right to go home to Shels.
“I felt like I was actually good enough for a Shels standard - especially as a kid, not being good enough. I felt I was good enough then. I felt like a completely different person, to be fair. I knew I could use everything that I learned over there and just help Shels win. And that's all I wanted to do, because like, God, I’ve supported Shels for so long as well. I'm Shels, like, true and true. Even if I didn't play for them, I’d still want them to do well, you know?”
That summer, former Under 17s Academy manager Eoin Wearen stepped up to lead the Women's senior squad.
A talented footballer in his own right, Mooney attributes her strong start with The Reds to the former Hammer.
“We went for a chat and we just got along so well. He knew what type of player I was straight away and person, because obviously he and Alex would have chatted about me before I came back in so, like, it just felt really exciting, you know?”
“He made me feel, like, really confident within myself, and that I would really make an impact with Shelbourne. That I could really be something that would really help spur them on, and hopefully win them games, and score them goals, and stuff like that.”
Once again, she cannot speak highly enough of the quality and depth of the squad that she re-entered at Tolka Park.
“God, the group of girls that we have is actually insane, if you look at it on paper,” she enthuses.
“Pearl, Rach, Noelle - they're all legends. Like, I looked up to them so much as a kid. Noelle's easily the best player this league has ever seen. The things she can do with the ball, she can get you goals from absolutely nothing.
“To even be able to play with her is just actually an honour, to be honest, and, especially, Pearl and Rach, of course. Pearl as a captain, you can't beat her. She's just an absolute legend of the club. And she really spurs you on at the exact right moment.”
Shelbourne will look to turn the page against league debutants Waterford when they travel to the RSC on Saturday in search of a crucial three points.
Mooney will no doubt, be gunning for goal.
“I feel like they're going to be underdogs,” she opines. “We can't go into this game expecting to win. It’s going to be a really, really tough game and we have to expect absolutely anything that's thrown our way. It's really, really good for the league that they're in this now, because you want to grow this league. I think I've played against a few of their players before. So, I would know a few of them. Yeah, no, it's really exciting.”
As our conversation draws to a close, I ask the star Red what changes within the league could persuade her to stay at home, should another opportunity to move abroad arise.
She pauses, weighing the question.
It matters.
“Well I think if we went professional, and it went to a full-time contract for us all, no one would really have to go away then, you know? It would just keep everyone happy and at home. And then, like, we're still competing for the Champions League every year as well. So, like, it's no different to any other professional league that's out there. I think every girl that plays in this league just wants to do it every day.”
Indeed they do.
Christine Allen
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