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GFP HEC CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS 54 | WINTER 2019 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie GUESS WHAT I DO COURTNEY MURPHY What does your job as a diagnostic technologist involve? I work as a Diagnostic Technologist with Abbott Diagnostics in Longford. Abbott are a med-tech company and they manufacture diagnostic products that are used in laboratories in hospitals for example. I'm based in the solutions laboratory in the site in Longford and it's a great place to work. We make up the solutions that go into the company's diagnostic products. Some of the products are used in fertility tests, emergency pregnancy tests, tests that can tell if you have had a heart attack, and several other diagnostic products. How do you become a diagnostic technologist? I studied Biotechnology in NUI Galway, which was an interesting course. I loved my time in Galway. Biotechnology is a specialised science and it focuses on DNA technology and that side of science. It's pretty interesting stuff. I finished up in Galway and graduated in 2018. The job came up in Longford and it was one of the first that caught my eye. I was straight out of college and I wasn't really sure where it would take me, but it is so handy for home so I was delighted to get the job and I love it there. How have you managed to blend work and football? We don't really have a huge amount of medical companies like Abbott around home in Fermanagh so to get it and be able to base myself at home is the perfect situation. I'm less than an hour of a commute to home so it all works well. Everyone in the lab finishes work at 4.30pm so I have plenty of time to get home and make training on time. So far it has been good and the job really suits my footballing ambitions. If I was further away I wouldn't be able to play football. There are a lot of pharmaceutical companies down in Cork and that would be a fair commute. The first year here has flown. Football is keeping me busy too. 2019 Had a few highs and lows with Fermanagh. How do you assess it? We got in to three finals in 2019 and for sure at the start of the year we would have been happy enough to achieve that. But getting promotion to Division 3 was one of our goals and getting there was a big thing, a real achievement. That started the year off in a good place. It was disappointing that we lost the Ulster final but we got a good run in the All-Ireland series and then we had a bad day in Croke Park. We are a very young team though so the experience will definitely stand to us going forward. Hopefully we'll get a chance to get back there in 2020 and make up for it. The most frustrating thing is that we didn't do ourselves justice in the final. We really underperformed. Louth were really good and deserved their win but it was a huge disappointment that we didn't play to our potential. But we can take confidence from that: Louth went through it in 2018 and kicked on this year. We'll aim to do the same and build on that experience. How was your experience playing with your club in 2019? Because I'm working in Longford I am still living at home in Kinawley. We had a brilliant year in the county where we won both our league and championship. The double was a great achievement there, but we went on then and got to the Ulster Intermediate Final and we lost in extra-time. That was such a tough result to take. That's the third Ulster final we have lost in four years, it was really disappointing but we'll be back with a bang in 2020. The new season approaches, is the excitement building? We're back in action in the end of January, pre-season is back already and we'll soon be back in the full swing of it again. It doesn't be long starting. We play Kildare in our first Lidl National League game and in Division 3 all the games will be challenging. Hopefully that challenge will stand to us come championship time – you can only improve by playing in a higher division. What are your aims with fermanagh for 2020? I think first of all we'd like to find our feet in Division 3. We don't want to be just going up this year and then coming straight back down to Division 4. We need to maintain our place there this year. Thankfully we have had no changes in the backroom team, which give us that bit of continuity. We can't wait to get back to it.