Issue link: http://digitaleditions.uberflip.com/i/1006469
38 // Ladies Gaelic Football Association FIONA MCHALE PEIL Summer | Issue No 2 | Volume 14 eing an intercounty player is special. Some say being a collegiate player is even more special because of the tight bond that is created as a result of "living in each other's pockets". Having the freedom of the student life is slightly less pressure to the experience of those juggling the daily grind and playing intercounty football. This is a topic I would hope to explore and share my thoughts on down the line but in my first article I would like to start at the beginning. As a player you are essentially responsible for yourself. As a captain and more experienced player you have a sense of responsibility for your own performance but also for the players around you. Are they happy? How can I help them be happier? After all a happy woman is a happy player. Happy players play good football. Good footballers win matches and winning matches means winning trophies. Captaincy is a massive undertaking for B a player and only a role that a select few could manage and only a role that I have seen mastered by a handful in my 15 years playing football at an elite level. In 2012 I took on a role helping out with the UL ladies Senior footballers after moving down to Limerick for a teaching job. This was something that scared the hell out of me at the time but a challenge I was willing to take on as I felt I might be able to have even a tiny impact on the direction of UL football. I had seen them play in the previous year and was a big fan of their style of play under a good friend of mine DJ Collins. What was my biggest fear of? Coaching my Mayo teammate Sarah Tierney who was a UL student at the time. How would this relationship work? I was training and playing alongside Tierney one day and then standing on the other side of the white line as her coach another day? As it turned out it worked very easily in fact, and a lot of that was down to Tierney's open mindedness, respect and professionalism. In my second year involved DJ named Tierney captain and through that season I watched her grow into the one of " ...I watched her grow into the one of the best captains I have ever had the privilege of playing with or coaching. She continued leading Mayo for the past 3 years without fuss". Dublin goalkeeper Ciara Trant makes a save from Fiona McHale of Mayo Joint manager Fiona McHale, University of Limerick. O'Connor Cup Semi-Final Developing Leaders