'Irish players have really started to step up this year ' - Celtics Women's Head Coach Jordan Hehir

LIMERICK Celtics Women's Head-Coach Jordan Hehir says he is happy with how his side is performing in this season's Domino's Women's Division One league. 

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The Celtics are battling it out at the the summit of a very congested Division One table and Hehir says his side have shown great resilience to fight back from a few early season set-backs. 

"I think it's gone really well. We've had a lot of new faces this year compared to last year. That mixed a big group of young girls coming up, there were always going to be bumps in the road but we've fought well, we've bounced back from losses and mistakes. We're starting to come into a bit of form now which is great.

"The girls are also still trying to figure each other out which we knew was going to be the hardest part of coming into the season. That was our main goal for this year, to try and get them to figure each other out and that's starting to happen now which is great."

Very few points separate many of the teams in the Division One table this year and the Celtics' Head Coach says that this is testament to the quality of Irish players in the league, given each team in Division One is limited to one American per team. 

"I think it's a testament to the Irish quality in the league. When you drop down to one American per team, Irish players this year have really started to step up. That's coming from U18s right up to senior women's. We've played games this season where some of the younger kids have really stepped up and dominated games which is great for Irish women's basketball as well as the league."

Hehir admits its 'brilliant' to see two Limerick teams battling it out at the top of the Women's Division one table and looks forward to the upcoming clash with the Limerick Sport Huskies.

"It's brilliant. This period is where we are looking to create separation from that pack we're currently in in the league table. That's our main focus. We are obviously playing the Huskies in that period so hopefully we can hand them that loss which also brings us up the table.

"We're as happy as we can be at this stage of the season. You do have to take it on a week-to-week basis, it's a long season. We were disappointed to exit the cup but the league this year, there's nothing to separate nearly all of the teams. 

"Teams are going to pick up losses so it's just about reacting to those losses and trying to get as many points on the board as we can"