Maria Cooney, Sarsfields, Galway, pictured ahead of this weekend’s AIB Camogie All-Ireland Club Championship semi-finals and for the release of the first full 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 Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
By Cian O’Connell
Since 2017 Sarsfields have featured in six AIB All-Ireland Senior Camogie Finals, registering three victories.
It has been a schedule packed with important matches, but Maria Cooney wouldn’t have it any other way. From a family steeped in sport, Cooney continues to deliver for the Sarsfields cause. Saturday’s semi-final encounter against Sarsfields from Cork is the next challenge to embrace.
How do the current standard bearers remain relevant in Galway and on the national stage? “I think it is just our determination, our work rate, and our want,” Cooney responds instantly.
“I suppose, any success you do have, they don't last very long. They all become part of the past, something you look back to. So that drive, hunger, and want is something that has been instilled in this group of players coming up through the ranks at underage and so on.
“The group we have at the moment, we have a really strong desire, a really strong work ethic. We have set standards for ourselves, we won't accept anything less. With the group that we have, we are really lucky.”
Cooney acknowledges that the heritage and links to a glorious hurling spell for Sarsfields in the 90s matters deeply. “Yeah, it definitely does,” she says.
“At the moment, you see a lot of the daughters of those players from the 90s coming through. There is a huge tradition of hurling and camogie in Sarsfields. It is something we've had since we were all very young, we've had hurls since before we could even walk and talk.
“We just love it, we have a strong passion for it, we have grown up with it, we don't know any different, and we don't want to know any different. We just love the game.
“For a lot of us we had fathers playing on those teams. Looking at them, their work ethic, and their passion - the Kennys, McGraths, Kellys, you have loads there. You can see the work ethic and determination they had, it is instilled in us.
Lucia McNaughton, Loughgiel Shamrocks, and Maria Cooney, Sarsfields, in AIB All-Ireland Club Senior Camogie Final action last year at Croke Park. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
“In a way it is history repeating itself, but we wouldn't be anywhere without seeing the hard work and determination they had. We know ourselves that we’ve to repeat that hard work and determination.”
An ability to maximise the resources available has been an important part for Michael ‘Hopper’ McGrath and his backroom teams. Keeping players involved is vital. “We wouldn't have the biggest numbers, absolutely not, in comparison with other clubs,” Cooney says.
“Any of us that are involved we love it, we have a huge grá for the game. We have standards and we won't really accept anything less. We are all that way, we all think that way, between our management and ourselves. If we need to pick it up, we will work until we get there.”
As a post primary teacher in Presentation Athenry, Cooney is fully aware of the different tests faced by teenagers recently. “The last couple of years, especially after Covid and things like that, it was huge to adapt, to go back to normality - whatever that is,” she says.
“It was a big change, even for the students, it is a huge thing to have to adapt to. It was a big change from not being in a classroom to being back there now.
“It is just kinda starting to get back to normal, they are back into the flow of things in classes and the school day. Definitely, the Pres Athenry is a great place to be with a lovely staff and students. There is a really good community, I'm so glad that I'm a part of it.”
The value and importance of sport, though, was underlined during demanding days. “For me personally, sport was huge during that time, be it getting out in the garden to hit the ball up against the wall,” Cooney remarks. “It was something you could do, that resilience you built up from sport was very helpful along the way.
“Anyone that plays sport was in the same situation, be it going for a puck outside or whatever it is. Just those characteristics you would have learned and built through playing sport would have been a huge asset during that time.”
That Cooney combination of style and substance - demonstrated on the hurling fields too by her father, Joe, brothers, and uncles - continues to serve Sarsfields well.