Doireann O'Sullivan stepped off the pitch after a recent game and declared that her body was feeling "grand". There was a quick retort from the Cork backroom team.
"Our strength and conditioning coach said, 'Of course it is, your sprint distance is down about 500m!'"
O'Sullivan, the PwC GPA Player of the Month for June in ladies football, thinks that might be down to a subconscious changing of her game.
"I don't think I'm doing as much sprint distance or as much distance full stop compared to other girls," says O'Sullivan.
"I don't know if it's me being lazy or me being smart. Maybe I am holding a run, delaying a run, not running until a player is in a good position that I can get the ball off them. Maybe I'm a bit wiser."
'I have been playing with Cork for ten years'
Last season was a stop start one for the Mourneabbey forward. Injuries pulled the handbrake. She suffered a fractured vertebra, but dodgy knees are the main issue. O'Sullivan has torn her meniscus three times. It meant she had to put serious thought into whether she should continue playing at inter-county level.
28 May 2022; Aine O'Sullivan, left, and Doireann O'Sullivan of Cork celebrate after the TG4 Munster Senior Ladies Football Championship Final match between Kerry and Cork at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile
"I was a bit apprehensive coming back playing this year," she says.
"We finished club football and I told Shane (Ronayne, the Cork manager) where my head was at. He told me to hang up, forget about football for a while which I did.
"And then it got to a stage where I had to make my mind up. You can’t play inter-county without a bit of a pre-season so yeah, I was humming and hawing. I put pen to paper and made a pros and cons list, but the pros far outweighed the cons. But a massive one on the cons was the injury - just the fear that you know you’re back watching games from the stand.
"It was probably the first time since I started playing with Cork that I had to consider my options whether it was the right choice to play, just because of the demands inter county football puts on your body.
"I didn’t go back until April, the start of the League. I met our S&C coach, I’d never met him before, and we went for a coffee and I just explained my concerns about not being able to train all the time. He said that there were soccer players or county players who are doing the same. He just let me know it can be done.
"I just think we have a negative mindset about it but I’ve stopped panicking about it. I do conditioning classes now out in Douglas and I’m on a different programme to the rest of the girls in terms of S&C so it’s just tailored.
"We’ve a WhatsApp group between me, our physio, our S&C coach and our manager, and we just put plans together in that and I just do what they tell me. Communication is important and I let them know how I’m feeling but it’s all done on an app and it’s all very professional.
"I was very nervous about coming back this year because that was a huge concern. In my head, I couldn’t understand how someone wouldn’t be on the pitch all the time but I think I’m understanding now that everybody’s body is different.
"I have been playing with Cork for ten years so it’s just taking its toll a small bit now and that’s why it’s taking longer for me to recover. I was also nervous how the girls would respond - they’re training three nights a week and I only do two - but they’ve been extremely understanding and I suppose seeing the big picture is the thing."
A big part of why she came back was the appointment of Ronayne. In September, after just a year managing the Waterford men's football team, he resigned to take what he said was "too good an opportunity to turn down". Ronayne had previously managed Mourneabbey to two All-Ireland senior club titles.
"Shane would have had an excellent relationship with the Mourneabbey players," says O'Sullivan.
"He'd have known a lot of the girls as well from college football. A lot of the girls who play with Cork played with UCC as well under Shane. Maybe I'm biased but I'd say the vast majority wanted Shane to get that job.
"I'd have a very good relationship with Shane. I know how much he wanted it. He was there with Eamonn Ryan for a year as a selector but he did always want to be the main man. He brought in an excellent team with him. He's ticked all the boxes so far. The girls have huge respect for him.
"He's so knowledgable on ladies football. His CV speaks for itself. He's never happy with what he's done. He listens to podcasts, reads, constantly trying to learn and improve. He sees stuff different as well. He points those out, and then the penny drops. He's always a set ahead. I think he's the right man for the job."
25 September 2016; Cork players Doireann O'Sullivan, left, and goalscorer Rhona Ní Bhuachalla celebrate at the final whistle after the Ladies Football All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final match between Cork and Dublin at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
O'Sullivan's decision to continue playing has been the right one thus far. In Cork's championship group stage games, she scored 1-5 against Donegal and 1-7 against Waterford.
It's now six years since Cork and O'Sullivan won an All-Ireland. This weekend, in a championship which looks more wide open than ever, Cork face Mayo in the quarter-finals.
"It had been a two horse race for a few years but Meath brought that new dynamic that you don’t know who’s going to win," O'Sullivan says.
"There is no easy draw any more or soft team any more which shows where ladies football is gone.
"When you've got a taste of success, you just greedily want more. This year, with Shane being manager, that would have been a huge motivator for me. He's the right man for the job, and can get us over the line.
"My cousin Maire (O'Callaghan) being captain as well would be another motivator, and getting to play my best friends. There are eight girls from Mourneabbey on the panel, two of which are my sisters. Those reasons outweighed injury concerns.
"I don’t think we’d have set out at the start of the year if we didn’t think we could win an All-Ireland. For those of us who have been there a few years, it is strange being underdogs but it is a huge motivator. We want to get back to Croke Park to play hopefully in front of a record to lift the Brendan Martin Cup again."
See Also: A Year Ago, Shane O'Donnell Thought He'd Never Play Hurling Again
