*Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
There have been references to Croke Park from the outset of David Sullivan’s first year in charge but that lofty objective was certainly tested when the reality of life bit in the early part of 2021.
“When we first arrived, getting this far was the ambition and then Holly [McGee] and Aisling [Corry] went on Erasmus, Marian [Rodgers] had a baby and Aoife [Power] suffered a cruciate knee ligament. So a bit of rejigging had to happen and it did knock the stuffing out of us for a while there until you realised the potential of the seven or eight new players who hadn’t played senior before.
“So getting minor players up to scratch, gelling everyone together and creating a bond and understanding took a bit of time but since the first round of the championship when we beat Kilkishen/Bodyke, I think it has just released an energy in everybody because girls then realised that they were good enough for this level now.
“Since then we’ve been on such a great journey. We’ve been to the wire so many times, I mean the first couple of games in Clare, we were flamboyant and putting up big scores but the further we went in the county championship and then obviously Munster as well, the matches got tighter and the conditions got tougher. We’ve been able to adapt our game from the flamboyance to just a huge work-rate and an insatiable willingness to get over the line. So a lot of work has gone into it but we’re in a great place and we’re really looking forward to it now.”
With a need to uncover new players in order to freshen things up, it turned out to be a mutually beneficial relationship as the new management structure also brought fresh voices and approaches to an already established core.
“It’s like any new manager coming into a team, you’re automatically going to get a lift because it’s a new opportunity especially as we’re from outside the club and we didn’t know the girls and they didn’t know us. So it was the perfect clean slate for everybody and the players had to prove themselves all over again. It’s worked out well and it’s just been a case of having to learn to trust each other. I think that was the big thing, to find that level of trust where we’d do anything for each other.
“Pretty quickly they could see that we meant business and in turn we could see that we had a serious bunch of players but still we needed to find that common ground where they’d do anything for you on the pitch knowing that you’d do anything for them on the sideline. And since we’ve gotten that level of trust, we’ve become very hard to beat and I think that has come across in the last few minutes of games where people think that perhaps we’re beaten, that never-say-die spirit has worked a treat.
“At some stage, my time here will come to an end where it will level off and someone else will have to come in after me and pick it up but that’s just life and sport. Every management team gets their cycle and run at things and I’m just fortunate and very, very happy that in my first year, we’re in an All-Ireland Semi-Final.
“It’s a great achievement for us all but we wanted to kick on now, we want the big stage. We were here in 2019 and were desperately unlucky and we’ve a good number of them now playing in their second All-Ireland Semi in three years. So I know those girls are desperate to get over the line while the younger girls have no fear anyway so they don’t care whether it’s their first one or last.”
It’s more than just a burning desire to win an All-Ireland Club title though as Sullivan wants to be part of establishing a legacy for Scariff/Ogonnelloe, not unlike Sunday’s opponents Oulart-the-Ballagh.
“Where we are in the club, we want to build a successful team, we want to have longevity of success, we want to keep bringing the younger girls through every year and keep the team freshened up. I can sense out there that each girl that steps onto the field knows that they have to work hard to earn their place.
“Even training in Ogonnelloe on Sunday morning, you get the sense that there’s a performance there waiting to be unleashed. They feel they didn’t do themselves justice in 2019 and you don’t know when you walk away from those games if you’ll ever get another opportunity. But since we scored that last minute goal against Drom & Inch, everyone is just buzzing for this opportunity.
“Again it’s against the All-Ireland champions, we can’t seem to catch a break in that regard. But these are the games you want to play and this is why you training in the muck and dirt, to prepare for games like this.
“So we really just can’t wait. I do feel that there’s a big performance in these girls and if we can just do ourselves justice on Sunday, I feel that we can win the game. But we simply have to perform because they’re All-Ireland champions for a reason. They’ve very experienced and know how to last the course so we need to hurl to our potential and if it comes down to who wants it most, by god we’ll want it more than anybody else.”
Scariff/Ogonnelloe will be without the talismanic figure of county senior Ciara Doyle for Sunday’s All-ireland Semi-Final following surgery on her thumb sustained during a third level match for WIT in the aftermath of the Munster Final. However, while Sullivan is the first to admit that it’s a huge loss, he is confident of the squad’s ability ‘to always find a way.’
“While it goes without saying that you want all your best players on the field, it won’t be an excuse on Sunday, we won’t be going down there saying we’re missing Ciara or we’re missing Aoife [Power], We still have 26 players who are itching to play and determined to get Scariff-Ogonnelloe to an All-Ireland Final.
“Look, the last step is always the hardest one so getting over that hump on Sunday and into an All-Ireland Final is a big, big step. We saw last Saturday the joy in Kilcoo and Balygunner but they’ve had their disappointments as well and that last jump is not always the easiest. I talked to the girls on Sunday at training about that as I had goosebumps myself watching the All-ireland Club Finals thinking that in three weeks time that could be us for the very first time. So it is possible. People mightn’t be giving us much of a chance on Sunday because Slaughtneil, Sarsfields and Oulart-the-Ballagh have played eleven All-Ireland Finals between them and we’ve none so we’re kind of perceived as fourth in the ranking.
“We don’t see it that way at all, we’re going there to do our business and if we do that, we’re good enough to win.”
