In attendance at the 2023 TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship Finals Captains Day is Síofra O'Shea of Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
It can’t have been easy for Kerry captain Siofra O’Shea to attend yesterday’s TG4 Ladies Football All-Ireland Finals media day in Croke Park.
She herself will play no part in the match after rupturing a cruciate ligament for the second time in just 13 months before Kerry’s All-Ireland semi-final win over Mayo.
It must be a devasting blow for the Southern Gaels club-woman, but she’s been determined to set aside her own personal heartache for the good of the team by remaining a positive influence on the camp.
“I was in training the Sunday before the Mayo game and I just took a shot and landed awkwardly on it,” recalled O’Shea of the moment she suffered the injury.
“I got up and walked off and went for an MRI. I wasn’t expecting to hear that it was a cruciate – the next morning I got the news. It’s gutting. I was very disappointed when I heard it.
“But your focus turns then to the team. I told the girls but I wanted full focus to be on the Mayo game because we couldn’t lack any focus or any distractions for that game might have caused disruption.”
O’Shea had been having her best season yet for the Kingdom and her absence definitely weakens them, but she’s confident they have enough attacking strength in reserve to build a winning score against Dublin.
“I felt I was going good but we’ve built such a strong panel over the last four years, you saw the impact Danielle O’Leary had in the semi-final against Mayo, she was unbelievable.
“We have players who can step up to the mark, especially with the additions we’ve made to the panel over the last year since we lost to Meath in last year's All-Ireland final.
“We got in Amy Harrington, she’s been making an impact, you’ve got Hannah O’Donoghue and Fiona Tangney back there, great forwards as well. I think this year our panel is probably our biggest strength. I’d be confident in them to take the load.”
Síofra O'Shea of Kerry and Carla Rowe of Dublin react at the full-time whistle in the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship Round 1 match between Dublin and Kerry at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile.
Kerry will surely source some belief also from the fact that they’ve already beaten Dublin on the two previous occasions they’ve played them this year, once in the League in Austin Stack Park and once in the Championship in Parnell Park.
“They were very tough games,” says O’Shea. “The first down in Austin Stack Park in Tralee in the league was probably a coming of age for ourselves. We had a great performance that night.
“That was probably our best performance in the league, up to the league final. It was a real psychological boost that we could beat one of the big teams in the country.
“Then to meet them in the first round of the championship, it was a very tough game inside in Parnell Park, they were very tough. It was a physical game. we got two yellow cards, we were down to 13 players for some of that game.
“We had to dig deep to hold on to get that two point win. That was a great win for us and a big boost for the rest of the championship. It set up a home quarter-final and I think that set us on our way.”
Beaten All-Ireland finalists last year and Division 1 League champions this year, Kerry have been building steadily for some time now under joint-managers Declan Quill and Darragh Long.
Kerry manager Declan Quill and Síofra O'Shea of Kerry before the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship Round 1 match between Dublin and Kerry at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile.
They coached many of them as minor players before they took over the county senior team, and have them playing a well-organised attacking brand of football.
“We’ve had this management group now for the last four years,” says O’Shea.
“Darragh and Declan have been unbelievable. The structure they brought, the professionalism, their backroom team as well.
“We've had stability in Kerry Ladies Football which probably we hadn't for years before that.
“They had lots of different managers in and out and I think my age-group came in then, we were that minor team with Darragh and Declan as our managers.
“Since we came in and we had Darragh and Declan they've been great for us and we've kind of built as a group. It was always going to take a few years to fit into their structures and what they were trying to do with us.
“We're all getting a bit older as well, I think there's ten from our minor team from that year who have come up with them so to have that stability and gelling together with the more experienced players as well, it's going to take a few years but I think we're finally getting that click right.
“I think we're growing and learning as a unit. It probably takes coming through a few of those tight games and winning to gain that experience but I think we've learned how to see out games now which we probably weren't doing in the past.
“The tight games we were probably coming out on the wrong side of them.
“So to be able to hold onto the ball, kick a few scores, just really frustrate the other team and keep them out in defence in the last 10 minutes of games, we've really been working on that and I think it's come to fruition this year.”
A Kerry supporter after the TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Kerry and Mayo at Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
It’s 30 years since Kerry last won a Senior Ladies Football All-Ireland title, and if they could end the famine in the same year they were beaten in the All-Ireland senior men’s final by Dublin it would be all the sweeter.
“Yeah, I suppose it's been 30 years and that's a very long time down in Kerry when you see the success the men have had and the success the ladies had before that,” says O’Shea.
“You see some of those players around that had success 30 years ago like Mary Jo Curran and Mary Lane and them. They'd be at all our games. Geraldine O'Shea is in our management team and has her All-Ireland medal in the back pocket.
“They're a great inspiration for us but we've been working for the last four years with our management team and we're trying to write our own bit of history and win for our group.
"Obviously it would be great for the people of Kerry and I think you've seen the support we've got over the last year especially since the All-Ireland Final. It's been huge.
"And to see the amount of young girls and boys following us and coming onto the pitch after for pictures and autographs has been unbelievable. So I think our support base has really risen and it would be great to give back to them."
