Ireland and Cork native Denise O'Sullivan have claimed that 2023 was an "amazing" year for her personally.
O'Sullivan and her Ireland teammates became the first Irish women's team to reach and play in a Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Although the team didn't make it out of the group, they did inspire the nation and future generations to come.
The World Cup debut was also followed by a commanding and impressive Nations League campaign; six wins from six meant that Ireland made it from Nations League B to League A.
O'Sullivan, one of Ireland's key players this year, was asked to sum up her 2023 by Irish publication The 42.ie and responded by saying, "It’s been amazing. I can’t say anything else. It’s been amazing, but it’s also been tough. It’s been a rollercoaster.
"The build-up to the World Cup was definitely tough because you’re always thinking of what you can do better and you’re always thinking, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ It was always anxious before the World Cup, to be quite honest. We were there for so long together—an unbelievable experience."
Denise O'Sullivan believes Ireland can do great things (Photo By (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)The Cork woman also confirmed that she was grateful to become one of a handful of people to play at a World Cup. The 29-year-old is now keen to play better opponents in 2024 and feels the opportunity to do so will only spur on Eileen Gleeson's side in 2024.
"There aren't many people in the world who get to say they were at the World Cup, so I’m very grateful for it. It was tough, obviously, not being able to push on in the group. I think we probably could have done a lot better than what we have done. But again, it was our first time at the World Cup. I think we’ve learned a lot from it, and pushing on from the World Cup, I think the campaign has been good," she added.
"We’ve obviously played against lower opposition, and no disrespect to them, but we’re going to be playing higher opposition in the future, and I think we always have that in the back of our minds as a squad, but for us, we can only go out and play who we have in the opposition. It’s been good so far, but I know we have a lot of potential in this team, and I think we can push on even more."
