Ladies Gaelic Football

26 | SUMMER 2023 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie INTERVIEW Still on the Road to Croker.. CAIT LYNCH OF KERRY TALKS TO DAIRE WALSH ABOUT THEIR RECENT EXPERIENCES ON THE BIG STAGE. By Daire Walsh A fter going close to nine years without playing there, the Kerry ladies footballers have made Croke Park something of a second home in recent times. While they won't be thinking past their encounter with Mayo next weekend in the TG4 Senior Semi-Final, their ultimate goal is of course to get back to Croke Park on the biggest of days in 2023. Following their 0-16 to 0-7 defeat to provincial adversaries Cork in the TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship final on October 7, 2012, it wasn't until June 26, 2021 that the Kingdom found themselves back in GAA HQ for a competitive fixture. Kerry also fell short on that day to Meath in a Lidl National Football League Division 2 decider, before finally getting over the line in the same competition against Armagh at the north Dublin venue in April 2022. They also made the trip to Croker for two championship outings last year - an All-Ireland semi-final win over Mayo and a subsequent Brendan Martin Cup final reversal to Meath - and returned to take on Galway in the Lidl NFL Division 1 showdown on April 15 of this year. Selected at right-corner back for that All-Ireland loss just under 11 years ago, Castleisland Desmonds stalwart Cáit Lynch started her sixth game at Croke Park as Kerry claimed their 12th top-tier league crown with a convincing 5-11 to 1-10 triumph over the Tribeswomen. While not every game has gone their way, Lynch is adamant that playing in the ground on a regular basis worked in their favour against Galway. "It's a huge advantage. For us, getting to play in our first Division Two final a couple of years ago, to get to play in Croke Park it was the first time that the majority of the girls on our team had played in Croke Park. Maybe there was three or four of us that had previously and that was probably nine years previous as well," Lynch remarked in the aftermath of their Division 1 triumph. "To get even that first experience in was great. We built on that then in the Division Two final last year. Getting to play there a couple of times last year and then this year. It's always a great experience to get to

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