Ladies Gaelic Football

ladiesgaelic.ie // 5 THE BIG INTERVIEW Volume 14 | Issue No 1 | PEIL Spring NIAMH McEvoy looks back fondly on memories of winning her first All-Ireland senior title with Dublin. he dust has well and truly settled on that glorious day in Croke Park last September but as she recalls that special feeling, she refers back to 2010. 18 at the time, she remembers thinking that after they beat Tyrone to lift their first- ever Brendan Martin crown that this would become a regular crown. Little did she know back then that it would take seven years to reach the Holy Grail and finally get over the line once again. "I was quite young," she smiles on the TG4 All-Stars Tour to Bangkok. "I definitely didn't appreciate it as much. I thought, 'This is the norm now, this is going to happen all the time.' Sure we were waiting seven years for another one." Seven years of ups and downs, so close but yet so far: most evidently seen in the three that preceded the 2017 win. Three painfully narrow defeats to Cork on the biggest stage in Gaelic games, with McEvoy involved in each and every one. On an individual level though as each year passed, the St Sylvester's forward developed more and more as a player and fittingly reached her prime to coincide with the collection of her second Celtic Cross in the blue jersey. She crucailly bagged 1-1 during the decider showdown with Mayo but with the game finely in the balance in the closing stages, she couldn't enjoy herself until she was substituted. "During the match I felt that we had missed good opportunities," she explains. T "I was thinking, 'They don't aways keep coming,' those goal opportunities. There'd be days where you'd rue those chances but thankfully we were able to keep up the same pace that we attacked the game with in the first half. "I came o" in the last five or six minutes so I was able to really really start to enjoy it then. Once Sarah got the second goal I was able to relax into it." So that final whistle feeling was something else? "It was incredible," she grins, finiding it hard to muster up the words to describe the atmosphere as the hooter sounded around the grounds. "This was massive and it was a really nice experience to get over the line with girls who I've grown up with essentially." McEvoy makes no secret of the fact that Dublin have parked last year though. It's done and dusted, and 2018 brings a whole new challenge. Their Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 1 campaign has been a " the St Sylvester's forward developed more and more as a player and fittingly reached her prime to coincide with the collection of her second Celtic Cross in the blue jersey." Niamh McEvoy of Dublin during a training session on the TG4 Ladies Football All-Star Tour 2018.

• Cover