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26 // Ladies Gaelic Football Association MAIRÉAD KAVANAGH (LIMERICK) PEIL Autumn | Issue No 3 | Volume 14 "The fact that Louth have beaten us twice in the league. We ignored it, we wiped the slate clean and trained hard and put our heads down. We worked our strengths and maximised them as much as possible. "The field suited us because we have done an awful lot of running. It really suited us from that point of view. Even the subs that came on, the legs, the contributions they made, the team work. "It has just been a result of all of the focus over the past six weeks." Limerick finished third in Division 4 of the Lidl National Football League this year, and they went on to suffer a 1-15 to 0-9 defeat at the hands of Louth in the semi-final. And having lost their other league game to Louth as well, it was a big ask for Ryan and his players. "It's been a huge turnaround. When we reflected on the league and looked at our performance against them, we found our style of play quite pedestrian at times," said Kavanagh. "We were slow running off the shoulder. Step number one was just work on our fitness first of all. The football fell in with that then. That has been a key attribute to the performance we gave in Croke Park. "We reflected on the league, our management joined us in January. We were on the back foot from the get go this year. We had a new management team and no time to get to know them or anything, it was just straight into league football. "There was really a lot of trial and error for us as a panel. We probably realised we had something serious post-league, coming into the summer. We had a full panel and we saw what talent we had within the group. "That's when we really started to believe that we have here is 36 girls who want to get us back up into intermediate." It has an awesome couple of months in Limerick, and the county have never seen success like this in hurling and Ladies football. And like the senior hurlers, Kavanagh knows the brilliant management team that she has worked with have helped paved the way her side's victory at Croke Park this year. "John Ryan has been fantastic. He has been on the phone every single day to us and he know us inside out," said Kavanagh. "And it's not just John, our mentors, Jim Moran has been fantastic, Packie O'Gorman, Aideen Fitzpatrick and Paul Butler. We have been really lucky. "We have had Debbie Carroll our physio, with us through the year. Any niggle that we had, she would look after us as well. "The management group as a whole have really focused everything on us. They have been really selfless. We are very lucky." Kavanagh is a HR Generalist who works with a multinational in Shannon. And after a whirlwind year she is looking forward to what the intermediate game has in store. "I am finished college now, so I work in HR in Shannon. I actually find it a lot easier to play football now," said Kavanagh. "I didn't really play football in college. I just enjoyed myself. But when I finished my masters I started working nine to five and that's when I found I started to get really fit again. "Working suits me. I am in my routine and training just falls in line with that. "I can't wait for next year but we have to enjoy this first." Mairéad Kavanagh of Limerick celebrates after scoring her side's third goal "WE WERE SLOW RUNNING OFF THE SHOULDER. STEP NUMBER ONE WAS JUST WORK ON OUR FITNESS FIRST OF ALL. THE FOOTBALL FELL IN WITH THAT THEN.