Fresh from a supplemental shooting session alongside club and county team-mate Áine McDonagh, Ailbhe Davoren sits in Moycullen’s dressing room and takes a rare moment to reflect on a relentless 24 months.
Last November she helped her club to their first Connacht intermediate title. That came a year after she was a key member of the historic Galway minor side that claimed their fourth Connacht title in a row. She went on to make the breakthrough to the senior team while also playing for UL as they recently reached an O’Connor Cup semi-final.
She’s now in her second year with the Galway ladies, who play All-Ireland champions Dublin today in the National Football League semi-final.
The girls were so good to us at the start. Last year when we first came in we were all treated very equally. Now you'd try to remember the younger ones coming in and that change from minor to senior. I would have played with a lot of them before I made the team. I remember saying last year ‘oh, it wasn’t a big deal’ but on reflection it was such a massive jump.
Especially for us, we didn’t know many. Our club was always intermediate, we had no one else on the senior team. It was just ourselves and the girls were great. There’s a feeling there, once we got stuck in. The team is trying to come together in Galway because of how strong the club rivalries are in the county, you don’t want them in the county set-up. They were so helpful to the extent we’d be mindful of it this year.
You are always friends with your clubmates but I’ve played with the same players growing up all these years. The girls that are coming in now, I've played with them all the way up from under 14. The younger girls all know each other and now we gel with the older ones. It’s such a good vibe around the camp.
Galway face a Dublin side seeking revenge today in Kinnegad. Last month they handed Mick Bohan’s side their first loss since winning the TG4 All-Ireland title. For Davoren, the build-up is a lot more lowkey thanks to experience.
I try and take it in my stride really. Definitely the year under my belt from senior last year was a huge help. To be honest, that first go had a huge impact preparing for games this year. The build up is calmer now.
It’s great to be a part of it all. We won the intermediate for the first time ever in the history of our club last year too. We realise we might get hammered for the first while but it is about building. Even Galway, we’re sick of being the nearly team. It’s about giving it our all this year and try make it more significant than the rest.
In 2017 Stephen Glennon's Tribeswomen secured their 14th Connacht title with a win over Mayo before a 24-point hammering in the quarter-final against Cork. A similar trajectory unfolded in the league. Galway made it to a semi-final last year as well, before losing by 16 points against Donegal. It's something they discussed openly in preparation for this season.
We’d be mindful of the fact we mightn’t have gone so well last year going into the semi-final this time. We’d want to redeem ourselves for that performance and improve on it. It has started already, we got hammered by Donegal last year and came back and drew with them in the league campaign this year. We just want to redeem ourselves really, the main thing we’re pushing on is a performance.
Look at Dublin; we are completely aware of the fact they had ten gone away on the All-Star trip when we first played and it is exceptional to have that. We only had one on the All-Star trip. That is another thing for Galway, we need to get players on that and just on the scene. It’s one game at a time. One thing we are focusing on is performances and not being overwhelmed by a loss or a win.
Galway takes its football seriously and Davoren is all too aware of that. Success at minor and club level leads to lofty expectations for 2018. Her league campaign started brightly with an opening day goal during their win over Monaghan. Another 0-2 was contributed during their league triumph over Dublin, but she's hoping to better it this Sunday.
The league campaign personally, yeah it went fine... I was happy enough I suppose. I’d say other people would have different opinions on how I went. I’m aware that maybe I got more goals last year and now I’ve only popped one on the left foot this campaign. Look that's part of it, maybe I’d look to get more involved that way. If I could pop a few Sunday it'd be no harm!
