“It’s great just to be part of it” – Delight for Carey as Dublin Ladies make it three in a row
By Stephen Leonard
DUBLIN’S Olwen Carey spoke to The Echo of her delight at helping the Jackies capture their third All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in succession after they beat Galway 2-3 to 0-4 in awfully wet conditions in Croke Park on Sunday.
The Tallaght woman, together with her Thomas Davis clubmates Siobhan McGrath and Ciara McGuigan, have been a part of the county’s memorable journey towards a three-in-a-row this season, a feat Carey insists the team were not focusing on in the lead up to Sunday’s decider.
Thomas Davis players Siobhan McGrath (behind) and Olwen Carey embrace at the final whistle in the Ladies All-Ireland Football Championship decider which saw the Jackies beat Galway to lift the title for the third successive season on Sunday in Croke Park while (right) the Dublin team and management celebrate. (Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile)
“We weren’t really thinking about a three-in-row; that was more in the media” said Carey. “We were just focusing on the match and our performance.
“But looking back on it, three in a row is a great achievement. After the final whistle me and Siobhan [McGrath] got to each other first and it was great for ourselves and Ciara McGuigan, three Thomas Davis players, to be part of all that.
“It was great because Dublin has only ever won it four times and I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved in three of those.
A day after the Dublin senior men had been crowned All-Ireland champions in glorious sunshine, the Dublin ladies found themselves embroiled in a right battle with the dogged Tribeswomen in a quest for the ultimate prize in front of a record 56,114 spectators at GAA Headquarters.
Indeed the Blues carded only a well-taken goal by Sínead Goldrick in the opening half while Galway could muster up only a Sarah Conneally point in response before the break.
The conditions, no doubt, affected the prolificacy of both sides, but so too did the defensive work at both ends of the pitch, something in which Carey and McGrath were instrumental for Dublin.
Mick Bohan’s side began to turn the screw on their opponents after the break, with Lyndsey Davey shooting over their first point before Galway were reduced to 14 players after Mairead Seoighe was yellow-carded.
And when Lyndsey Davey fed the ball across the face of goal for Hannah O’Neill to palm to the back of the net, Dublin looked to be motoring.
Yet Galway were never going to let up and a couple of frees by captain Tracey Leonard kept them in touch with her cousin Roisin also firing over.
But Dublin remained out of reach as Sinéad Aherne and Noelle Healy each struck a point to keep their tenacious opponents at bay.
“The weather did affect the game” said Carey. “It made it very slippery out there, very difficult to play in.
“It turned into a bit of a dogfight and thankfully we came through it as winners.
“We always knew they [Galway] were going to come at us strong early on. They had more opportunities for points, but our defence did well pressuring them, and they did have more wides in that period.
“The goal [in the first half] was very important for us. Goals can wins games and it’s always good to get the first score in a match. It came from good team work too.
“Galway are the team we’ve played the most over the last few years and we know they’ve got great players and a panel with strong management.
But Mick [Bohan] just told us at halftime, as he always does, to try to go out there and express ourselves. Keep it simple and try adapt the game plan to the conditions, because in the first 20 minutes we got turned over a lot. Thankfully we did that and we got the win.”
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