Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh (Corca Dhuibhne, Kerry) pictured at the announcement of AIB’s landmark sponsorship agreement with the LGFA, which sees AIB become the title sponsor of the coveted All-Ireland Ladies’ Football Club Championship. This historic four-year sponsorship marks the first time a single sponsor has united all four codes of Gaelic Games – Gaelic Football, Hurling, Camogie, and Ladies Football – under one banner. Photo by Dan Sheridan/INPHO
By Cian O’Connell
Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh just sensed something was stirring five years ago. More than a decade spent on the inter-county beat with Kerry had taught her many lessons. Some harsh ones, undoubtedly.
In 2019, though, Declan Quill and Darragh Long made an impression. Ní Mhuircheartaigh felt that possibilities existed. Sometimes, in sport, that is enough to sustain a player or a team. Believing in others. “It is like a match made in heaven between management and the players,” she says about the connection formed.
“We're one big family, we're very tight as a unit. When they came into help us first, they brought in Cassandra Buckley as S&C towards the end of the 2019 season, it was the latter stages of the championship.
“We were at rock bottom really in Kerry at the time, when they came in there was something special about them. We wanted to keep them.”
Ní Mhuircheartaigh, the gifted Kerry forward, acknowledges the significance of that spell in Kerry’s story. “They were with the minors at the same time, they could have gone with the minors in 2020, but I think for the future of Kerry football it was really important that we held on to them,” Ní Mhuircheartaigh reflects.
“Thankfully they agreed to come in, it has just been an unbelievable journey with them. We've so much respect for them, they've changed ladies football in Kerry so much.
“The commitment, dedication, and passion they've brought in has been second to none. We owe them absolutely everything. We've the utmost respect for them.”
The Corca Dhuibhne attacker was adamant that Kerry could develop and prosper. “In 2019 we lost the quarter-final to Dublin, we stuck with them for maybe 40 minutes of that game, they just steamrolled past us for the last 20 minutes,” she recalls.
Kerry's Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh pictured with the Brendan Martin Cup after the All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Final. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
“Normally you'd be down in the dumps after losing a quarter-final or a semi-final, whatever it was at the time. That year there was something different.
“We knew we were going to come back, the majority of us, anyway because of the lads. We knew there was something special in them.”
Suddenly, Ní Mhuircheartaigh felt that Kerry had equal measures of hope and expectation attached. Subtle, but important changes happened. Expertise was added, new voices encouraged. “On a personal level, they were two boys that we needed for a long time in the county and the management team they brought in,” she adds.
“You'd Annmarie O'Donoghue, Cassandra Buckley, Geraldine O'Shea, three legends of the game coming in alongside them. They were just unbelievable at the time. Obviously, they brought in extras then this year, PJ Reidy and Mags Fitzgerald, who would've played alongside us going back a few years, and Eric McDonnell, our S&C.
“You'd the likes of Seán Dee coming in as goalie coach, they were massive, massive people, Claire Thornton, the psychologist, she had a lot of work to do with us. It was just a match made in heaven with the whole management team, the players bought into it, that is really important, too. We owe them everything.”
Kerry suffered harrowing losses, but an All-Ireland title was eventually gleaned. “It has been unbelievable, a dream really, to be honest since August 4, we are on cloud nine, having Brendan (Martin Cup) back in the Kingdom, so, we're just delighted,” Ní Mhuircheartaigh responds.
The value of perseverance has been underlined. “Yeah, a bit of stubbornness below in Kerry,” she laughs. “I think it was really the management that brought in the belief, that made us believe that we could actually achieve this dream. If it wasn't for them, I firmly believe, and all the girls believe, that we wouldn't have got over the line.
“Thankfully they stayed with us for another year and we had our motto: Go One More. We did. We promised each other that we'd dig deeper than we'd ever dug before. Thankfully it is a year to remember and we've that All-Ireland medal.”
