*Amy Lenihan. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
THERE WILL BE A strong Miltown Malbay support in Sunday’s ladies football final but not for the neighbouring Kilmurry Ibrickane parish.
Instead, it will be for St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield netminder Amy Lenihan who has strong ties to the West Clare village, both of her parents, Seán and Debbie hailing from Miltown Malbay.
There will be many supporters passing ‘The Hand’ en route to Cusack Park this Sunday to cheer on Kilmurry Ibrickane in both finals but former referee Mickey Wilson will be heading to Ennis to cheer on his grand-daughter Amy. Indeed the goalkeeper singled out the support of her grandfather in advance of the county final, “when he was younger he was doing a lot of reffing in his day, the interest in football came from that”.
She explained, “Friends and family is who most people are playing sport for plus the girls on the pitch and watching you off it, I think that connection really makes people enjoy it and want to stick with it”. She added. “When I was younger a lot of the Clare team that got to the 2016 All-Ireland final, that was the main thing, ladies football in Clare was blown up because of it but coaches and parents have been a big influence and my grand-dad is a huge fan and comes to all the matches”.
A mechanical engineering graduate, Amy has been on the Doora/Barefield panel for six years, having previously won Intermediate and Junior A titles with the club. “My age group especially, we did the double U12, U14, U16 and minor, we were always winning one or two so we had a core group all the way up along,” she recalled of their success at underage ranks. “Myself, Siofra Ní Chonaill, Aisling Reidy, Aisling Hannan, Meadhbh O’Connor would have been the same age, Aoibhin O’Loughlin would have been the year below us but still always playing, there’s a good group of us”.
Reaching the senior final is part of their natural progression, she maintained. “For the last two or three years we’ve seen how close we’ve got in certain years and how we do have a good strong team there and knowing that we can get there eventually, it all comes with age and experience, coming back every year and trying to get there, thankfully this year we have”.
Clare’s first choice goalkeeper for the past three seasons, Amy rotated between this position and the full-forward line during her underage career. “I was in and out the whole way up, there’s different team photos and I could be in goals one year but if I was outfield I was in the forwards. For my age-group I was always out the field and more in the full-forward line but it wasn’t until four or five years ago when I got called up to the county team to cover the sub goalkeeper who had got injured because I had play in goals for the Clare minors the year before and that is where it started, getting used and comfortable with the position,” she told The Clare Echo.
Standing between the posts can be a very lonely spot. “There’s a couple of matches, I’m not going to lie where there’s maybe one or two points in the game with five or so minutes left, you’re thinking if a goal goes in then it’s all on me even though it could come from any other position in the field. With club and county, I’m lucky to have Siofra in front of me, we’re so used to playing with each other for both teams, it’s great to have that connection with someone and being able to trust her knowing that I can rely on her, it is the same with the other backs, we’ve really built it as a unit this year”.
With restarts having such an importance in the modern game, securing possession from kickouts places further pressure on custodians. “For myself I think a huge thing is getting the kickouts right, if you have six good strong backs in front of you and they are doing their job you might only get one or two shots on you in the game but you could have fifteen kickouts so that is the main thing that we try work on and see if we can get them off and at least then you can settle yourself, because there’s nothing worse than kicking it straight to the opposition or one going astray, before you know it you could have three or four points belted in on top of you”.
Amy added, “There’s been a few matches where the result hasn’t gone your way and you do have a bit of doubt where you think I could have done this better or done that better or saved that goal. It is more so to keep telling yourself that you are on a team with fourteen other players on the pitch, no result is ever blamed on one person, you have to remind yourself that”.
Doora/Barefield have a stronger desire to succeed this year, Lenihan believed. “I think it is the want for it, every year you’re going out at the start of the championship hoping you will get to a final or a semi-final and take it from there, last year we got knocked out in the quarter-finals but I remember we were within a kick of the ball of all the teams, then this year we knew we could drive on and get to the end this time round”.
She added, “At the start of the championship you would have fancied a few of the teams in the other group but looking back now I think those tough matches really stood to us, Kilmurry Ibrickane were our first match, we knew it would be tough and the same with Kilmihil, then West Clare Gaels were in the county final last year so they were all tough hard matches which have really stood to us”.
Inter-county experience is a big asset when it comes to playing for her club, Amy outlined. “You’re unfortunate to miss some of the league matches and training but championship is what it’s all about, we were unlucky to get knocked out early in the inter-county this year but I’d say it has nearly benefitted our club team more because myself, Siofra and Hannah were back in, we had girls coming back from J1s and being able to train together for the extra few weeks before the club championship started really stood to us”.
Exiting at the quarter-finals to Tyrone in Cusack Park was a big upset for Clare’s intermediates this season but the twenty four year old is confident they will bounce back next year under new manager Graham Shine. “We saw last year we were a point away from Kildare, this year it was a point or two against Tyrone and they were very close to Leitrim so again there’s a kick of a ball in all these games and we know how close we’ve been, it’s about getting the heads right and getting the work done to hopefully get us over the line”.
