Laura Ward, Sarsfields, Galway, pictured ahead of this weekend’s AIB Camogie All-Ireland Senior Club Championship final and for the release of the second episode of ‘Meet #TheToughest’, a new content series from AIB that will showcase some of the final stages of this year’s AIB Camogie All-Ireland Club Championships, through footage captured by cameras worn by players for the first time in Gaelic Games. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
By Cian O’Connell
With seven Galway Camogie and three AIB All-Ireland titles collected since 2016 these truly are glorious times for Sarsfields.
Armed with a distinguished and decorated sporting history, Sarsfields continue to deliver at the highest level.
Sunday’s national decider against Dicksboro at Croke Park is the next mission that will be embraced with trademark determination by Laura Ward, who remains a key contributor for Sarsfields.
Ward is fully aware of Sarsfields’ remarkable journey during the last decade. “When you look back, we were babies in a way when we first got out of Galway,” she says.
“We were so naive, really. We were thinking wow, this is a great new experience. We didn't know what went on when you got out of Galway. We've had our losses, you think about them all of the time.
“Those days we got beat in Croke Park by Slaughtneil, they are the toughest days. You think about them. We don't feel like we are this many years into it. Maybe when we are older we will look back and say ‘wow we did years of getting out of Galway’.”
The setbacks and losses hurt with Ward referencing a particularly harrowing defeat to Ardrahan. “After those two county finals we won, we got beat in a county final in 2018, that day we got beat, I still remember standing on the pitch that day thinking I don't want that feeling again,” she replies when asked about the reasons why Sarsfields have maintained high standards.
“Once you experience that feeling, it makes you when you're down doing those trainings, you think about that feeling. You don't want to be there again. That pushes you.
“Those defeats are the ones that push you to keep going. Somebody said to me during the week, that feeling winning in Croke Park must be amazing. If you think about that feeling while you are doing those hard runs, it will get you through anything.”
Ward’s brother, Kevin, is forging an impressive coaching CV. A key part of Michael ‘Hopper’ McGrath’s backroom team, he also trained Ballinderreen, who won the Galway IHC in 2023. “I don't know how his fiancé Ruth doesn't kill him,” Ward laughs.
“They had a baby last January. You had weeks there, where he was training with us, let’s say Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, he was with Ballinderreen Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. So, she only had him on a Monday, I don't know how she didn't kill him.
“Credit to him, I don't compliment him enough, I'd nearly argue with him more than I'd compliment him, but he is brilliant at what he does, to be fair to him. I'm so happy for him, that he did get success with the hurlers and in the camogie this year. It shows how good of a trainer he is.”
Laura Ward remains a key performer for Sarsfields. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Inspiration and information is never far away either. Father, Tony, remains a passionate hurling and camogie coach too, improving teams and assisting players always. “Dad is so supportive and everything,” Ward responds.
“He encouraged Kevin to go down that route, he has advised him and helped him with it. Dad, I suppose, has learned that we don't always sit around the table everyday talking about camogie.
"I've a brother, Ian, who has no interest in sport at all. So, when he comes in on a Sunday, we are all sitting down watching hurling on the TV, he nearly has to leave again.
“Even though we try not to talk about sport all of the time, it is very hard not to. We'd sit down and talk about how training went or what. It is hard to get away from it all because we love it so much too.”
A walk, a trip to the cinema or friends house is what Ward frequently does when Sarsfields aren’t training to achieve the correct balance. “I definitely can get away from it all,” she reflects.
“I'm teaching at the minute, when I go into school, I'm teaching juniors and seniors, they don't care whether I won a match at the weekend or I got injured in training. All they care about is me sitting there with them, chatting."
The way Sarsfields develop and integrate emerging talent into the senior set-up is something Ward admires. “As regards bringing in new players you have to compliment all of our underage management,” she remarks.
“To have players at that level or standard, bringing them up along the underage ranks, it is unreal. It is a compliment to our club, the system they have in place, to get girls through up to senior. It is amazing, a lot of thanks has to go to them too.”
Maximising the resources available is part and parcel of the Sarsfields story. “I'd say people are fed up of hearing us say how we are such a small area and everything, but it is such an amazing feeling, we are such a small area, it came down to all of the work within our parish for us to get to where we are,” Ward acknowledges.
“That feeling, all of us from two national schools that are literally playing and winning together now. All of the work that has been put in, it is unreal because the small parish and the success we have.”
Connections and friendships have been formed. What happened in the 90s is still fondly talked about in New Inn and Bullaun. Being so close counts for something in a battle. “That has always been said to us, all the way up along, Hopper has said that, we are a small parish, we do this for each other,” Ward acknowledges.
“When it is such a small area, we are a tight knit group. You do it for each other. You're doing it for your best friends, the person beside you, you went to national school with them, you've known them your whole life. You are doing it for them.”