Ellen Twomey laughs as she recalls her father's advice about how she could bulk up to take on the "country girls". She wonders how the Cork football panel's nutritionist would react if bacon and cabbage was added to her diet now.
"I'll have to run that by Jonny!" she says.
Ellen's father John died in a construction site accident, aged 59, seven years ago. Ellen was just 16, and already a senior player with Glanmire. John had been a driving force in her football career to that point.
"My older brothers would have been training and my dad would have been involved with them as a selector. Whenever he was going down, I was going down. Since I could walk, I was on the side of a pitch," she says.
"Then there'd always be slagging. My dad was a big country man. He would always be talking about coming up against country girls and how I need to be eating my bacon and cabbage.
"He would have been at all the big matches and always asking when's our next game."
13 December 2023; In attendance at a photocall ahead of the currentaccount.ie All-Ireland Intermediate Ladies Club Football Championship Final next weekend is Ellen Twomey of Glanmire, Cork, with the Intermediate Cup. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Over the last few months, those big matches have come thick and fast for Glanmire. After losing three consecutive Cork intermediate deciders, they finally got over the line this year when they beat Naomh Abán by a point in October.
Victories in the Munster final against Limerick side Monagea, a "touch and go" one in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Tír Chonaill Gaels in London and in the semi-final versus Meath's Na Fianna followed. This weekend, five years on from winning the All-Ireland junior title, Ellen will captain Glanmire when they face Leitrim's Ballinamore in the Currentaccount.ie All-Ireland intermediate final.
On the MTU Cork pitch following the win against Naomh Abán, "all the emotions from the prior three years just came crashing out".
Ellen sought out Lydia McDonagh, a friend whom she'd marked in the game, to offer a few words of commiseration. Then she saw her mother Ger - the family's "rock" during a time of grief - on the sideline.
"My two brothers (Sean and Niall) have actually moved to America, so it's myself and my mom at home," she says.
"Then my grandparents on my mom's side, both of them are still alive, thankfully. She's caring for them because we live so close to them.
"She was going through such a tough time, as was everyone in the family, but she really held us together and she could have crumbled and went hiding, but she didn't. She stood up and she looked out for us all. She doesn't get enough thanks for it."
9 December 2018; Ellen Twomey of Glanmire, centre, celebrates after the All-Ireland Ladies Football Junior Club Championship Final match between Glanmire and Tourlestrane at Duggan Park in Galway. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
The Glanmire squad is tight, one which became even closer during the trip to London for the All-Ireland quarter-final. Three of Ellen's cousins, Aishling, Niamh and Olivia McAllen, are on the panel. Before John Twomey's death, and since, the McAllens have been a second family to Ellen.
Ellen finished her degree this year and took up a teaching post at Glanmire Community College, where she also studied. Three of the Glanmire players are also students there.
"It's kind of funny to be going from Ellen on the pitch to Miss the following morning," she says.
After last year's club championship, Ellen was called up to the Cork senior panel by Shane Ronayne. She made her debut in the league against Donegal and also saw game time against Meath.
"My mom was very proud when I got called up to the Cork seniors," she says.
"She was delighted travelling to all the games. It kept her busy as well. I suppose it takes her mind off stuff, a break from work and being with my grandparents. It was a change of scenery and something new for her.
"The experience I got from the team was second to none. It was my first year up. I knew game time was going to kind of be a bit sparse for me, but it was more of a learning curve, like the nutrition side of it, the fitness side of it, the physical side of it, in the gym.
"I'm after learning so much and management have even said they can see the improvement in me from just a year alone. Just being around players like Ciara O'Sullivan, Doireann O'Sullivan, all these girls that have their All-Stars and All-Ireland medals, to be getting on so well with them, to be marking them in training, it's going to bring you along.
"I was in my final year of college last year, so that was hard enough as it was. It was kind of a shock to the system. Once I was able to get into it a small bit, I realised the [increased workload] got me on the straight and narrow. I had to be productive with my time. I couldn't just be messing around."
25 March 2023; Ellen Twomey of Cork during the Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 1 Round 7 match between Cork and Meath at Pairc Ui Rinn in Cork. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
This autumn was a successful one for Gaelic games in Glanmire. Along with the ladies football intermediate title, the Sarsfields club won the Cork senior hurling championship and the camogie side - which features dual players from Glanmire - won the Cork and Munster senior championships.
In October, flooding caused by Storm Babet devastated the Glanmire area. Ellen isn't so naive as to think that a run to the All-Ireland final will fix all, "but if we're any bit of a distraction, if we're any bit of a lift and we can kind of brighten up someone's day, that makes us all happier".
When Glanmire face Ballinamore at Croke Park on Saturday afternoon, Ellen's mother will be in the crowd and her brothers will be supporting her from the US. There's also the pillar of knowing that her father would be proud.
"I suppose the fact that I am doing so well with regards to football and I'm after getting my degree, that's all my dad would have wanted," says Ellen.
"I was saying to a few of the girls, these wins this year, we would have been on such a high and then when it came back down, you get a small bit upset being like, ‘I would love if my dad was there’, but I know he'd be proud out. That makes it a small bit easier."
The Intermediate and Senior Finals will be played at Croke Park on Saturday, December 16, with the Junior Final to be played at Parnell Park, Dublin, on Sunday December 17.
