Ladies Gaelic Football

18 // Ladies Gaelic Football Association SENIOR PLAYERS PLAYER OF THE YEAR PEIL Winter | Issue No 4 | Volume 14 By DECLAN ROONEY here can have been little debate as to who deserved to be named the 2018 TG4 Senior Players' Player of the Year – but this individual award was just the window dressing on Sinéad Aherne's season. A seventh TG4 All Star award was another individual gong that marked her incredible season, but she took a lot more satisfaction from battling together with her teammates and is more interested in plotting the possibilities for Mick Bohan's Dublin down the line than getting carried away by individual awards. It was the year that Dublin Ladies put TG4 All-Ireland senior wins back-to-back for the first time, their very first Lidl League Division 1 and championship double, and the season that a record 50,141 attended their All- Ireland final day victory over Cork, which was also a first for the Sky Blues. But after a year of so many achievements and landmarks, Aherne is hopeful that the future of the game grows evenly around the country, with all teams getting a taste of the success the Dublin ladies have experienced in the last two seasons. "From our perspective it has been difficult to tell what the growth of the game has been in the last couple of years," said St Sylvester's clubwoman Aherne. "Is it because you've been successful that people are more inclined to take an interest? The last two years the attendances at the finals were records and that has been great and I do think that can continue to grow. I think the interest is there but I'd like to see the whole game lifting in terms of standards, support, sponsorship and everything like that. "Hopefully it just doesn't reside at a small level like attendance at a final or sponsors coming on board for teams that are making the finals. I'd love to see the standard across the game and the media coverage and everything trickle down all the way so that everything rises together. "The possibilities for that to happen are there but I do think sponsorship, funding, access to facilities for training and top quality coaches has to be there. If that's achieved there are no natural barriers for the game to continue to grow." With the crowds at Finals day through the roof, and both Dublin and Cork playing some of the best football ever seen in the championship, what should we expect from 2019? In the Dublin camp, the aim must be to claim a third All-Ireland title in a row and Aherne admits as much, but despite it seeming like a perfect season, there was plenty of tough days behind the scenes, she says. "I don't think it is ever as perfect as it looks on the outside. The League was tough at stages and we had matches that were very tight and could have gone either way. The big one was the semi-final against Galway and we were lucky to get out with the win. "You ride your luck a bit but we were in a good place coming into the League final and that sent us into the championship on a good footing. "With the new format that came in this year it was a case of seeing how it goes and adapting to it. "We had to change round training schedules from previous years to suit. It was a bit of learning as you go, but T Sinéad Aherne acknowledged by Peers

• Cover