*Liscannor’s Roisin Considine. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
AFTER making it all the way to the competition’s decider last year, inter-county star Roisin Considine is hopeful of once again featuring in a Clare intermediate football championship final in 2025.
By Daire Walsh
On October 6, 2024 at Doonbeg, Considine was part of a Liscannor side that lost out on a scoreline of 2-12 to 1-7 in a second-tier showpiece against the Ennis-based Éire Óg. While this came as an obvious disappointment, Considine and her team-mates were grateful for the local support that gathered around the squad throughout their run to the intermediate final in the Banner County.
This has continued into the current season, which now finds Liscannor a mere 60 minutes away from reaching another championship decider.
This weekend will see them taking on Doonbeg in a tantalising semi-final – a number of weeks after they defeated the same opposition by the slenderest of margins (3-8 to 3-7) in a group stage encounter.
If they were able to get over the line in their latest meeting and return to another county final, Considine believes it would mean the world to all those connected to the coastal village of Liscannor.
“When we played them [Doonbeg] in the first round, we were up about 3-3 at half-time and we just took the foot off the gas in the second half. We gave away a lot of ball and they managed to sneak three goals back. I think they were up by a point at one stage. Thankfully we got two or three points then for a finish to win it,” Considine recalled.
“We got to the county final last year and we were beaten, but you could see the energy around the community was just unreal. Everyone got behind us and even for the younger girls, I coach the U12s in our club. You can just see, even getting to the county final, what it did for them. How driven they are at that age. They really want to be successful. It’s really good because it’s coming into winter and it’s something for everyone to look forward to. The young and old in the community. Everyone gets behind each other. Hopefully now we can get back there again”.
While she did feature in Clare’s opening stretch of games in this year’s Lidl National Football League Division 2, Considine subsequently spent three months on the sidelines when she tore her medial collateral ligament. She did eventually return to fitness in time for the tail end of the Clare’s TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship campaign, however, and started at wing forward in an eventual quarter-final loss to Monaghan.
“I tore my MCL in the first round of the club league. I was out for three months and it was disappointing, but I was really happy with my recovery. I got back for a half in our second round of the championship with Clare. I didn’t get surgery, thankfully. I’m a physio myself, so I was able to manage my rehab and progress it myself, which is probably a really good advantage to have. From being out injured, it kind of gave me that extra drive to get back fit for club. Because I knew I had missed out so much training, that I was just really ready to get back and get playing again”.
Now one of the most experienced members of the Clare panel, Considine was selected at right half-back when the Banner lost by the slenderest of margins to Kildare in the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship final at Croke Park in 2016.
Clare also suffered a one-point loss to the same opposition in an All-Ireland IFC showdown at GAA HQ seven years later, but Considine wasn’t part of the squad on that occasion. Based in the English capital as she was studying for a Masters, the Liscannor woman was a member of the London panel in 2023 and played for the Exiles in Division 4 of the Lidl NFL and the TG4 All-Ireland junior football championship.
While she remained with London club Tir Chonaill Gaels for the early part of 2024, Considine took the decision to return to the Clare set-up and proceeded to commute back and forth from England to line out for her native county.
This proved to be a worthwhile endeavour for Considine, particularly as she was part of the Banner side that secured the Lidl National Football League Division 3 crown with a final victory over Roscommon at Grant Heating St Brendan’s Park, Birr in April 2024.
“They contacted me to know would I be able to manage it [commuting from London] and thankfully I was. We worked it out that I came home as much as I could. I was lucky I was quite flexible with college. There was times where it was tough, when flights were cancelled and delays, but it was manageable. I was able to do it and I was glad I did it. I missed the competitiveness and the challenge of going to training, fighting for your place. I enjoyed doing it [with London] for one year, but when you’re used to being in an environment like we have with Clare, I just wanted that again”.
In an interview with RSVP Live earlier this year, Considine proclaimed that it was a goal of hers not to retire until she wins a county final with Liscannor and an All-Ireland with Clare. She might well have a shot at success on the club front in the coming weeks and even though she isn’t contemplating hanging her boots any time soon, she is optimistic the Banner County’s wait for an All-Ireland triumph won’t be a prolonged one.
“Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before we do. I don’t know when I’ll retire, to be honest. There are days where you do think ‘why am I doing this, what is it all for?’, but especially after this year when I got injured, it really showed me how lucky we are to be able to play,” Considine added.
“It just gave me an appreciation for it. The retirement isn’t in my head any time soon anyway. I don’t know when it will happen for us, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer”.
