Poc Fada Hall of Fame 2024 recipient Denise Lynch, right, with Munster camogie Chairperson Christine Ryan. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
Former Clare camogie stalwart, Denise Lynch, will likely watch Sunday’s All-Ireland Camogie Finals with a forensic eye.
One of the best goalkeepers of her era, these days Lynch is a highly regarded goal-keeping coach who worked this year with both the Clare minor hurling and camogie squads.
As a recent inductee into the M. Donnelly Poc Fada Hall of Fame you won’t be surprised to hear that Lynch’s go-to tactic with puck-outs back in the day was a fairly agricultural one compared to the strategies she now espouses as coach.
She’s not that long out of the game herself, but the role of a goalkeeper has changed massively in the interim.
“When I played it was just get it and hit it as hard as you can away from you,” says Lynch.
“There wasn't really the short puck out option or plays off puck-outs. It really was just hit it as far as you can and that helped me in that regard.
“I remember when we won the All-Ireland Junior Championship in 2008, for the last four or five weeks before the final we got a goalkeeping coach and it was the time I had ever really seen one!
“Now it's a vital element of every team, to have someone who looks after the goalkeepers and make sure that they're looked after because it's such a different position than anywhere else really on the field.”
It’s not just a different position than any other on the pitch, it’s now more important than any other.
“Yeah, it's evolved a lot,” says Lynch. “There are so many plays that start with the goalkeeper. In the Limerick Cork All-Ireland semi-final this year we saw 99 shots on goal so you're obviously going to have a lot of puck-out restarts.
“The goalkeeper now is the person on the field who is going to have the most plays and possessions. So how your goalkeeper performs is huge.
“If they're on song and performing well and the puck-outs are going well then your team is probably playing well.
“And if they’re not, then the team probably isn't playing well so it's huge, I think it's massive.
“It’s such a communicative role as well. You would always hope that your goalkeeper is commanding and able to order people around. That's massive now.”
Denise Lynch pictured in action with Clare in 2012.
The two Clare teams that Lynch worked with this year both had very creditable seasons with the minor hurlers edged out in the All-Ireland semi-final by Kilkenny and the minor camogie team beaten in the All-Ireland ‘B’ quarter-final by a Dublin team that went on to win the competition.
The Clare GAA Academy overseen by Head of Performance Rob Mulcahy is now regarded by many as best in class, and Lynch has loved being a part of it.
“I went in with the U-15s four years ago and from absolutely every aspect I think it's being run exceptionally well,” she says.
“You mentioned Rob, he just takes such good care of the whole S&C part of things with his team and you can see the development year on year.
“Last year I was with the U16s and I actually moved up with the group to minor this year. The difference between them then as young fellas and now in the space of a year was kind of astonishing really to watch.
“Compared to when they were U16s, you look at them in the final match they played this year against Kilkenny and they were just completely different lads and a lot of that is down to really good coaching and really good S&C programmes that are in there at the moment.
“It's nice being involved with teams. When you're not playing it's the next best thing really. Especially with that age-group, it's very formative so you hope that you're imprinting something for the future in these guys.
“It's always nice to think, ok, how many might make the senior team at some stage. I know the percentages are quite low given some of the research that Rob has done, but hopefully that might increase over time and we can get more guys through the system that will actually hopefully line out for Clare in a Final at some stage. That would be the dream really.”
Molly Lynch of Cork is presented the winning trophy for the Senior Camogie by Camogie Association president Brian Molloy after the 2024 M. Donnelly GAA All-Ireland Poc Fada Finals at Annaverna Mountain in the Cooley Peninsula, Ravensdale, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
The Cork team that contest Sunday’s All-Ireland Camogie Final are captained by Molly Lynch who on Monday won a fourth M. Donnelly Poc Fada All-Ireland senior title.
She’ll surely some day follow her namesake Denise into the Poc Fada Hall of Fame, an honour that the former Clare custodian was delighted to receive.
“It's obviously not something that I would have expected but it's a nice pat on the back after nearly 20 years,” she says.
“I just remember my time competing in the Poc Fada as being a lovely family day out. My parents were with me, my brother was with me, there were aunts and uncles and cousins.
“That's probably the thing I remember the most about it. I played camogie for years and you would never have your family members almost within two feet of you when you're competing.
“So, from that aspect it was nice. It was just a really nice family occasion and obviously really nice to win it as well.
“It's nice to compete as an individual as well, I felt that back then too. As much as I always loved being part of a team and always hoped I was a good team player. It was nice to do something as an individual and achieve something as an individual too.
“From that point of view it's a really good competition to enter because there's nothing else really like it when it comes to sports. You don't have a football or soccer equivalent or anything else. It's just a really, really class competition and long may it continue.”