There's a scene in the 1992 ice hockey flick The Mighty Ducks where Emilio Estevez’s character Coach Bombay empties a basket of pucks and tells his unpolished powerhouse Fulton Reed to "shoot your heart out".
And Fulton does - violently lashing puck after puck towards goal: one goes into the top corner; the next flies towards a woman holding a tub of popcorn in the stands; another smashes the glass on the perimeter.
The opposing team watches on, bemused and intimidated. When the game begins, Fulton gets an opportunity to steady himself and uncork a thunderbolt. Everyone flinches, diving for cover, turning their backs. But Fulton doesn’t shoot; instead a team-mate skates in to take the puck off him, slide it left and allow another Duck to pop it in into the empty net.
Ireland had a 'Mighty Ducks' moment against England last month.
As soon as Megan Campbell came onto the pitch as a 61st-minute substitute, the energy iside the Aviva Stadium changed. Campbell immediately got the opportunity to fling one of her trademark, laser-beam throws into the England box. It was delivered with such precise ferocity that the crowd gasped.
A few minutes later, she got another. And then another.
By throw-in number four, England were scarred enough by the threat that they retreated en masse into their own penalty area. But this time Cambpell didn't go long. She checked, swivelled left, and popped a short throw to Katie McCabe who found herself free in space inside the England half for the first time all night.
The Lionesses - so imperiously dominant for the first hour - had second-guessed themselves. Campbell's throws planted a seed of doubt that flustered the reigning European champions, and it's a weapon Gleeson must utilise to the absolute max
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