After three years with the Dublin camogie team, Sinéad Wylde decided to throw her lot in with the Dublin footballers this season.
"There were open trials, in a sense, in December of last year," she explained at the launch AIG’s Support4Drummo jersey swap fundraiser campaign.
"I just went along. I hadn't really been thinking about it during the year. I had a good run with Cuala in the club football championship, and then I went along to the trials, and got asked in. It wasn't an easy decision, but I took a month or so to decide."
Wylde has played a part already this season. In the Leinster Championship round robin destruction of Westmeath, she scored 1-1, and she contributed a point as Dublin lost to Meath a week later at Parnell Park.
'Sometimes the last thing you were thinking about was your camogie'
The forward says Dublin being All-Ireland contenders in football, whereas they are not currently at that level in camogie, was a factor, though not the deciding one.
Seán Drummond with Dublin players, from left, Cian O'Callaghan, Sinéad Wylde, Aisling Maher and Con O'Callaghan at Cuala GAA Club in Dalkey to help launch AIG's Support4Drummo jersey swap fundraiser campaign. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
"With camogie, we've had a few issues over the past years with management, and had a few relegation battles, and we're a young, developing team and are always getting new players in," she said.
I was playing for three years, and we had four different management teams. You couldn't just focus your camogie, there was a lot going on.
Sometimes the last thing you were thinking about was your camogie. You were wondering who was going to be there, and what was going to happen.
Even sometimes, if we did have the players to have a great team, it was tough when you didn't have a solid structure with the management.
Now, they've had the same management in for two years, Adrian O'Sullivan, and he's doing really well with them. They did well in the league this year, had a tough loss to Kilkenny in the Leinster final. I've been talking to the girls, and it's a good structure this year.
There's a set structure with the football. It being such a high performance team. You're training with All-Stars. That definitely did play a factor.
I thought the opportunity might not come around again. I wouldn't rule out playing camogie for Dublin again but I just thought the time was right to give football a go.
On Saturday afternoon, in a double-header with the men's Leinster football final, Dublin will again face Meath, the side who ended their bid for five consecutive All-Ireland wins last September.
"There's definitely a real rivalry," said Wylde.
"You wouldn't have thought at the start of last year that Meath would be the team you're going after. They've really come on since they came up from Division 2.
"It was brilliant to get a win over Meath in the league. I think there was 3,500 watching that in Páirc Tailteann. That was great, a really exciting game. It had a real championship feel to it because it was the first time we'd met Meath since the defeat last year in the All-Ireland final. We went down to 13 players, and still managed to get a last minute point to win the game."
Seán Drummond is a former Cuala and Dublin GAA underage player who suffered life-changing injuries in an accident in London after finishing college exams in 2019. AIG Insurance will give over its front of jersey sponsorship to Support4Drummo in prominent upcoming games in each of the four codes. The Sean Drummond Trust will use all donations to help Sean regain as much independence and self-determination as possible. To make a donation visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support4drummo.
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