Dublin captain Carla Rowe has All-Ireland success in her sights again

​By Paul Keane

Dublin captain Carla Rowe was watching back their dramatic All-Ireland semi-final defeat of Galway when she noticed a familiar face on the terrace.

The TV cameras picked up an anxious looking Mick Bohan as it panned through the ground in Tullamore during the extra-time epic.

He departed the Dublin hotseat after the 2024 campaign on the back of eight hugely successful seasons, in which Dublin won five All-Irelands, and was replaced by Paul Casey and Derek Murray who have jointly managed Dublin to Sunday's TG4 national decider.

"When I watched the game back, you could see how he couldn't stop pacing up and down," smiled Rowe of seeing Bohan at the semi-final. "We understand that feeling, I don't think I'd be able to stand there and watch it either, so I understand it."

Bohan officially stood down last November and concluded his departure statement by thanking his former captains.

"Martina Farrell, Sinead Aherne, Niamh Collins and Carla Rowe - you are special people who carried the fight and the flag and our county will forever be indebted to you," wrote five-time All-Ireland winning manager Bohan.

He and Rowe are still in contact.

"Yeah, absolutely, I have lovely long voice notes from Mick!" smiled Rowe, who was there for all five of the All-Ireland wins. "But you know, that's what you want. He gives me little pieces of information here and there, where it's just 'keep the head up' or these sorts of things, here and there. Mick wears Dublin on his chest so he'll never be gone and I'll always be open, my ears and my phone will always be open to him."

It hasn't all been plain sailing for the new management. Injuries have impacted the group and in seven championship games so far, Dublin have used 30 different players. Rowe had her own issues and didn't start any of the Leinster championship games as she protected a troublesome calf.

"We just said, you know what, for the longevity of the season, we need to get this right, so we just spent some extra time rehabbing and, touch wood, all is well," said the Clann Mhuire attacker.

Kate Sullivan, just like Rowe, came on in the Leinster final for her first action of the championship campaign too. She has been electric since then, reeling off 5-11 in total while Rowe has amassed 2-8 on the road back to Croke Park and Sunday's rematch with neighbours Meath.

Nicole Owens is another who came into the team at the back end of the championship and made a significant impact. As did former All-Star Orlagh Nolan. All terrific options to have in a panel crammed with quality.

"That's it, exactly," said Rowe. "You lose the likes of myself or Kate or whoever it is and we've had young girls coming in and playing and playing well, and performing, and that's what we need. I would say that has really stood to us this year.

"The injuries can be seen as a bad thing and obviously they are but, for me, I feel it really underlines that whole thing of 'we have a squad who can come in and do the job on the day'. They have proven that because they've had to prove it, on the pitch."

Rowe displayed her own wide skill set when, with her back to the posts, she flicked home a sumptuous goal in extra-time of the win over Galway. It was a finish borrowed from soccer as she figured she couldn't pick the ball up with the goalkeeper and so many defenders around, and simply back-heeled it in.

"It was probably the next day that it sunk in," said Rowe of the impact of her audacious goal.

"One of the girls sent me a screenshot of Twitter and I was trending number one in Ireland ahead of Rashford and Coldplay! That kind of put a limelight on it. So obviously yeah, there was a bit about it afterwards. But these things don't happen too often in sport and I always think you have to just take them in and enjoy them."

Rowe's goal nudged Dublin five points clear at the time though they only won by three in the end so it was a decisive score. She smiled again when considering what the upshot might have been if she'd wasted the opportunity with such an extrovert move.

"There was that moment when I was running out afterwards and I was thinking, 'Oh my God, why did I just do that?" she said. "If it went wrong, I was in a lot of trouble. But look, I knew the goal was open. I knew if I connected with it well, and concentrated on that one move and gave it 100 percent, that it should go right."

Despite the sorcery and the smiles, Rowe and her colleagues concluded on the journey home that improvement would be required for the final.

"That was probably the feeling on the bus on the way back, which was causing the quietness on the bus," she said. "I think it was probably just the realisation that that could have been the season over. But you can't spend too long on that either. You sit with it for a little while, you take the learnings from it, and then you have to move on because it all keeps rolling."