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T hanks to her status as an inter-county footballer with Cork, you would be forgiven for thinking that there is a significant weight on Laura O'Mahony's shoulders when she lines out at club level for O'Donovan Rossa. An extended panel member when the Rebelettes reached the TG4 All- Ireland Senior Football Championship decider against Dublin in 2020, O'Mahony has continued to feature prominently at the highest level of ladies football in recent years. She started against Galway, Tipperary and Armagh in last year's All-Ireland SFC and has also seen game time to date for the Leesiders in the 2024 edition of the Lidl National Football League. Her championship campaign in 2023 with Cork may have ended in a semi-final reversal to eventual winners Dublin, but she couldn't have asked for much more from her club season with O'Donovan Rossa. After achieving county and provincial success with final victories against Doheny's and Clounmacon/ Moyvane of Kerry respectively, she played a pivotal role at midfield as the Skibbereen outfit claimed a 2-7 to 0-11 triumph over Mayo's Claremorris in the currentaccount. ie All-Ireland Junior Club Championship decider at Parnell Park on December 17 of last year. Yet while her big-time experience certainly came to the fore at crucial stages in this game, O'Mahony insisted the fact that she has played in the senior inter- county grade goes out the window to a certain extent when you are donning the O'Donovan Rossa colours. "There's always that bit of ownership when you come back to the club, but look, everyone from 1 to 30 has a job to do. If you see there, every single one that came on or that went off, they did a job and they did their job brilliantly. Even though it wasn't pretty," O'Mahony said in the minutes that followed that success at the north Dublin venue. "I think that everyone, number 1 to 30, made a job. It doesn't matter at the end of the day who has worn an inter-county jersey. It matters who has worn a Rossa jersey." Although there were plenty of players in both camps who have been around for quite some time, it was noticeable how youthful the two teams were for this tension-filled junior showpiece. Across the starting 15 for Claremorris, there were nine teenagers and a further five from this age bracket were included amongst the substitutes' bench on the day. O'Donovan Rossa didn't have as many players under the age of 20 within "IT DOESN'T MATTER AT THE END OF THE DAY WHO HAS WORN AN INTER- COUNTY JERSEY. IT MATTERS WHO HAS WORN A ROSSA JERSEY." LAURA O'MAHONY OF JUNIOR CHAMPIONS O'DONOVAN ROSSA TALKS TO PEIL'S DAIRE WALSH. CLUB FOCUS 48 | SPRING 2024 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie