“Last year the (All Ireland) win galvanised the group and gave us the confidence coming into this season.”
Those are the words of Dublin Ladies forward Niamh McEvoy ahead of their All Ireland final today against Cork in Croke Park as they look to make it back to back wins.
Listen to the interview in full here featuring Mick Bohan & Ciara Trant;
Niamh has been apart of the Dublin panel for many years now and was on the team that lost three All Ireland finals in a row to today's opposition in 2014, 2015 and 2016. She and the girls in Blue will be aiming to stop a repeat of that today.
“This group is different from the group involved at the first of those All Ireland finals, there’s a lot of girls involved now who’ve never experienced a loss.”
“Then there’s girls of my generation who have been on the tail end of some difficult defeats. So there’s a good balance of youth and experience there.”
“It’s really energized the group to have these younger girls here.”
Niamh has had mixed emotions on All Ireland final day and spoke on her memories and the difference in feelings following an All Ireland final win and loss.
“Yeah obviously I’ve been around quite a long time now at this stage I have been in dressing rooms where there’s been a dejected feeling, it’s a quite lonely place.”
“There’s probably nothing as gut wrenching that I’ve felt in my life as being in one of those dressing rooms.”
“Certainly, last year. Nothing can describe that feeling either. Both feelings are something that people who don’t play sport at a high level will never understand so I’m just lucky to have been involved in it and it’s something I’ll definitely look back on very fondly.”
The Dublin Ladies are searching for their second All Ireland win in as many years while the men’s made it four in a row a couple of weeks ago. It is one of the most dominant periods in GAA history and certainly one that Niamh recognizes she is lucky to be apart of.
“Yeah exactly so at the minute the lads have led the way so there’s a great buzz around football in the capital.”
“We’re delighted that we’re playing Cork in an All Ireland final because I think over the last few years we’ve had some epic encounters.”
“That lads’ success last week was really positive, really enjoyable to be in there watching them get over the line again and helped us in our preparation.”
Listen to the show in full here;
Also, on this morning’s show we were joined by Dublin Ladies manager Mick Bohan. Leo Cullen following his sides 52-10 win over the Dragons at the RDS. Bohemians James Conroy from Irelands Amputee team speaks on the upcoming World Cup in Mexico next month. UCD manager Collie O’Neill following his sides first division win.
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