In Eamonn Murray's mind, the Ladies Football Manager of the Year is not him, nor Kerry joint-managers Declan Quill and Darragh Long. Murray thinks that award should go to Mayo boss Michael Moyles for guiding his side to the All-Ireland semi-finals despite losing five key players to the AFLW.
Shorn of Sarah Rowe, Aileen Gilroy, Niamh and Grace Kelly, and Rachel Kearns, Mayo finished second in their group behind Dublin, and then upset Cork in the quarter-finals before losing to Kerry in the last-four.
"Mayo were class this year," says Meath manager Murray, "any manager who can get their team to two semi-finals in a row missing all of those players - all All Stars, all class acts they are. For me, he is the manager of the year, [and] every year if he can keep doing that, not me - he is the man."
Murray has felt that AFLW inflicted frustration this year with 2021 Player of the Year Vikki Wall signing for North Melbourne, and Orlagh Lally with Fremantle. They'll play in the All-Ireland final against Kerry this Sunday before heading Down Under. Murray also says that 2021 Player of the Year nominee Emma Troy will not be available next year as she is going to Australia, though not to play Aussie rules.
26 July 2022; In attendance at a photocall ahead of the TG4 All-Ireland Junior, Intermediate and Ladies Senior Football Championship Finals on Sunday next are, from left, Aimee Kelly of Laois, Roisin Muphy of Wexford, LGFA President Mícheál Naughton, Anna Galvin of Kerry, Shauna Ennis of Meath, Alan Esslemont, CEO TG4, Cathy Carey of Antrim and Molly McGloin of Fermanagh at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
"It’s tomorrow’s problem," Murray says about the players who are leaving.
"It’s a lot, yeah, but it’s no different than Mayo. We probably have plenty of players to come up. Who knows what is going to happen next year, it mightn’t be my problem at all.
"I don’t know how [Vikki Wall] is holding it together. There’s a lot of stuff in her head, college and that. She’s a very level-headed girl. She’s still everybody’s friend. You’d see it after the last match, she’d go round to every table and have the chat. They are all equal to her, from the weakest to the strongest.
"She’ll not be the only loss, there’s three or four going. She’ll probably turn into the face of ladies AFL below, I presume that’s the idea. She’s a fluent Irish speaker and all that. When you offer money and nice sunny weather and all that, it’s very hard to compete with that, and a lovely life.
"She is going to be a massive loss, not just for us but for the country. I am hearing now that they have to sign a two-year contract.
"Look it, she wants to get a taste of it and she is very young. I know she will be back playing with Meath. I will not be around probably, but I hope somebody will have her again.
"She is a very special person, but she is not the only special one we have. We have plenty of them. That’s why we are All-Ireland winners."
Murray says he doesn't know how ladies football can win the battle for players with the AFLW, and would certainly be against any more towards professionalism in an attempt to compete.
"You’d walk away if that happened," he says.
"All I’d ask for maybe is travelling expenses - that’s not much to ask, but we haven’t got that yet, so..."
Kerry joint manager Declan Quill can see the pros and cons of Irish players going to the AFLW. Like Murray, he also has no answer as to how ladies football can stem the flow towards Australia. Unlike Meath, and others, Kerry are yet to lose any female players to Aussie rules. That may change following this weekend when scouts will undoubtedly be watching the All-Ireland final.
"What do you say, do you want to come out training in the mud and dirt in February or do you want to go to Australia and spend some of that time on the beach?" says Quill.
"I don't know what our cards are because it's costing the girls money to play their chosen game here in Ireland whereas they're going to make money in Australia and are probably going to be, like we saw with Orla O'Dwyer, the top outstanding performers. Cora Staunton at her age is still putting up massive performances over there, you know. So the Irish girls are doing really, really well.
"If it's put in front of you, it's a really, really hard choice. Myself and Darragh (Long) were talking in the car [on the way to Dublin], would David Clifford ever think of going to Australia?
"But I think David Clifford has so much to stay around Kerry for because he has a fan-base that is just unbelievable. He's a super-hero to the kids down there, he can probably have his choice of jobs in whatever he chooses to do.
"I don't see the attraction of him going to Australia whereas for a girl who is playing ladies football it might be, 'Oh Jesus, I'm going to make my money and live a lovely lifestyle over there whereas here I mightn't even get recognised on the street.'
"When you come to see a ladies game you want to see the best players and unfortunately the way the game is in Australia they're taking our top players because they're fitting them straight into their teams.
"When you come to see Meath playing or Kerry playing you want to see Louise (Ní Mhuircheartaigh) playing, you want to see Vikki Wall, you want to see Emma Duggan, you want to see the superstars of the game.
"Just like David Clifford and Shane Walsh, the show they put on on Sunday, what it would have been without them? The flair the two of them showed is what everyone is talking about.
"But it is worrying. I don't think anyone in Kerry is going at the minute, so if all the other counties want to leave their players go, we don't mind!
"I think one or two of our girls have been approached but have no interest in partaking, I think they're home-birds, it's hard to leave Kerry you know."
See Also: Kerry Have Raised The Bar On The Pitch, And The Issues Off It
