Hunger to learn keeps Amy O'Connor at the peak of her powers

By John Harrington

She’s now in her 13^th season of inter-county camogie with Cork, but Amy O’Connor’s zest for the game remains undimmed.

She’s starred in their two wins from two start to the All-Ireland championship with opposition defences still struggling to contain her speed, skill, and finishing power like they always have.

She plays the game like someone who can’t wait to the sliotar in her hand, and there’s a very good reason why.

“Do you know what? I love it. I absolutely love it,” says O’Connor of her relationship with the game.

“I love going to training. I love the feeling when you're playing at Thurles, Croke Park, Pairc Uí Chaoimh. I absolutely love it, and that has never changed.

“I probably do appreciate it a bit more now. Thinking back to the 2014 All-Ireland Final or the 2015 All-Ireland Final, I was only 17, 18, just going with the flow, and probably didn't appreciate it enough. Whereas now, I literally appreciate every game."

One of the reasons she’s loving playing camogie at the highest level so much now is because it has become the game she always hoped it could be.

There was a period in her career when she was frustrated by the manner in which some of the over-fussy rules of the game stunted the natural athleticism and competitiveness of the players.

But some key rule changes have let to a much more free-flowing, physically intense sport, and she reckons Camogie is all the better for that.

“Massively,” she says. “The game's in a much better place. Like, our games now, there's games now that we're scoring more than what the hurling games have on some days, which is incredible because games are much more free-flowing now. Our players are so athletic, so physical now.

So it's been a massive change, but it's brilliant. It's exactly what we want to see. Years ago we would have played an All-Ireland Final and it might have been 10 points to eight, whereas now it's a much more high-scoring game which is massively positive.

"I think the game is in a really good place and hopefully it'll be in an even better place going forward.”

In evolutionary biology the term ‘survival of the fittest’ refers to organisms who thrive because they’re capable of adapting to a changing environment.

The same theory can be applied to sport. O’Connor remains one of the very best inside-forwards in the game because she’s worked hard to develop her skill-set in step with the changing demands of camogie at the highest level.

“The way the game has gone as well, because our players are quicker, stronger, and can hit the ball longer, what's happening is players are now able to take their scores from further out to pitch, which means deliveries to the inside line might be less than what they would have been previously,” she says.

“So, I think as an inside forward patience is the most important element. In general I'd be a very patient person but I've learned over the years to become even more patient as an inside forward. I love the challenge that you might only get four or five balls a game sometimes.

“So how do you stay in tune and make sure that you make those count? I met David Galvin from Momentum Performance three years ago and he's helped me hugely.

"I would have always been a very quick player and I still am very quick. In a straight line, I'd be very quick or whatever.

“But I think as an inside forward you need to be able to move in complex ways and over the last three or four years that's something that I've definitely gone after. I had a couple of injuries and they allowed me to address areas that I wasn't probably brilliant at, but I was getting away with.

“Now I've really focused on them and mastering that has been massive for me over the last few years. I've been training specifically to be that inside forward, because that's what I am naturally, and that work has been massive.

"I probably have spoken to David Galvin every day for the last three or four years, nagging him about one thing or another and it's been massive for me.

"I definitely feel like I'm a much better player now since working with David on those specific movements for an inside forward than what I would have been previously.”

Watch O’Connor play and you’ll appreciate her ability to make space for herself with her movement.

Rather than run out from her inside-forward position in a straight line she’ll often ziz-zag her run to create more space between her and her marker and to also increase her chances of running onto the ball from an angle that means she’s half-turned and so already in a better position to shoot.

She’s also very good at starting, stopping, and starting her run again, or stepping her centre of gravity from one side to the other in order to leave her marker flat-footed.

This sort of jinking and side-stepping in tight spaces is something that has always come naturally to O’Connor, but you can see she’s honed it to a fine art from working hard on those specific movements.

“We're playing inter-county level and if you lined every single inter-county player up in a straight line and asked them to run, there's not going to be too much between the first and the last," she says.

“Everyone that plays senior inter-county is fast, so can you move in different ways? And it's that change of direction piece, the deceleration, acceleration, and so on, it's really focusing in on those key areas to try and get that 1%, because that's all it is.

“Because everyone at senior inter-county level is strong, fast, and fit, are there little tiny things that you can really go after to get better at your game?”

After an impressive impressive start to their championship campaign that has seen them defeat Galway and Tipperary, Cork will clinch their place in the semi-finals if they make it three wins from three in the group phase by beating Waterford on Sunday.

Last year’s agonising one-point All-Ireland final defeat to Galway which dashed Cork’s three-in-a-row dream is surely a source of motivation for the group this year, but O’Connor is at the point of her career where she’s philosophical about bumps in the road.

“Yeah, I suppose there's definitely that level of hurt there,” she says of last year’s final.

“Obviously, it was really upsetting. In the lead-up to last year's All-Ireland Final, I actually tore my hamstring, so probably didn't have the best lead-up to the All-Ireland Final. I came off in the All-Ireland Final, so probably wasn't the best experience.

“But I suppose as I've gotten older I definitely just remember that there's so much worse things going on in the world than losing a match. Obviously, you look back on the game and you're like, 'OK, where can I improve?' You look back on the year, 'where can I improve?' But you can't focus on it too much because that's just sport. There's highs and there's lows and you just have to go with it.

“I've been very fortunate, blessed, to probably have been born at the right time and have been involved in such good teams so I've had probably more highs than lows with my sporting career.

"Over the last two years I've had two bad injuries as well that have kept me out of the game for eight months at a time. So I definitely just appreciate playing.

“Obviously, we want to get back to the highs that we've had in the past, but it's about enjoying how you get there as well is the most important thing. I know it's so cliché, but what's the point if you only enjoy the good days? You have to enjoy all of the other days as well. So I think that only comes with age, you only get that when you get older.

“I definitely appreciate it a lot now. Again, I realise there's so much worse things in life than losing a camogie match, whilst at the time you do feel like it's the end of the world. The reality is it's not.”

Sunday, June 28

Glen Dimplex Senior Camogie Championship Group 1, Round 3

Cork v Waterford, Páirc Uí Rinn, 3.30pm