McCarthy haunted by All-Ireland Final regrets

By Daragh Ó Conchúir

Losing any game by a point invokes regrets. When it is an All-Ireland final, and you were chasing an era-defining three-in-a-row, it feels impossible to let go.

So it is for Saoirse McCarthy, one of the best players of her generation, who for the third straight season earned a nomination as PwC GPA Camogie Player of the Year and won a fourth PwC All-Star at Croke Park last Saturday night.

“I know my dad and my mom are really proud of me and love telling anyone that listen, that I’m nominated for player of the year,” says McCarthy. “I suppose, personally, it’s nearly a reminder of how close we became to having the whole thing.

“There was no turning point of the game,” she reflects on the pulsating decider. "We lost that game a million ways, if that makes sense.

“If everything could go wrong, it went wrong. You could talk about the penalty (Sarah Healy’s save from Katrina Mackey). You could talk about a few frees that we could have won - like Amy Lee pushed in the back in the first half, I felt was just crazy. But I would never blame a referee for losing a game. They have to do a job as well.

“I suppose you just look back and you think of moments; if you’re going to win the final, things have to go right for you.

The reminders seem to follow you around. Just last week, a teaser for the excellent RTÉ documentary Camogie: Inside The Championship was aired. And it made McCarthy wince.

“There was a video went up from RTÉ for that programme. It was a run that I was making, and (Siobhán) Gardiner’s hurley got caught up in me and fell, and I remember not getting advantage for that free, and I got turned over.

“But since I saw the video, all I can think about is, ‘Why didn’t I just put it over? She had no hurley to hook me. Why didn’t I just put it over?’ Those things are playing on your mind, you replay it over and over again. ‘I should have done this.’ Tiny, different things that you’d never even think about if the result went your went your way.

“But you do relive them a million times at traffic lights, and you’d be driving along and you’re going, ‘Oh I forgot about that. Why didn’t I pick that up the first time?’ Or ‘Why didn’t I catch that ball?’ It’s those tiny things that would literally haunt you when it doesn’t go your way.

“But we can be proud of how we played in the second half. At half-time, five points down, down to 14 players. I think we still had belief, we weren’t panicking at all, but bringing it back level was a massive achievement in itself, against a quality side, that’s something we can be really proud of.”

It wasn’t to be however in terms of bringing the O’Duffy Cup back to the Rebel County, as Galway skipper Carrie Dolan pointed the winner from a free in the dying embers of the game.

And so the westerners celebrated and the Cork players had to dust themselves off.

First there was the club championship and unfortunately, that ended earlier that McCarthy would have liked for Courcey Rovers. That provided her with the window to captain Ireland in the camogie/shinty international.

“It was an honour. There was a great group of girls there, and it was great meeting with players I wouldn’t come across very often, from Roscommon and Westmeath and Tyrone. It was brilliant to see other people’s perspectives and their experience with camogie and their love of the game. It gives you perspective.

“It was really good. It was great craic as well, you know? And being on a semi-level playing field with the lads and going over as a group with them was great too.”

While busy with work, in marketing for the sponsors of Cork Camogie, Keary’s, it is a time of the year where McCarthy needs to keep herself active, with camogie having wound down.

She has spoken regularly about the importance of mental health and maintaining awareness of it. To that end, she has been working with the GPA to facilitate workshops as art of the Ahead of the Game programme.

“It’s for young people and their parents and we go around to clubs. I’m actually going down to Kerry tonight for a workshop, and I was in Ballygarvan in Cork on Monday night, so we’d be busy enough doing them. And it’s a really rewarding thing.

“I think it’s a really important topic to talk about and it can affect absolutely anyone. I’ve my own experience. I did the shinty in the winter to keep myself busy. When you’re planning the summer, the days are long, you’re with your friends, you have your goals, you’re healthy, you’re fit, you’re strong, you’re doing all these things, and then you lose an All-Ireland final by a point, and you fall off a cliff.

“You’re not with your friends, the days are shorter, you’re not training as much, you’re drinking more. And it’s a cycle in the GAA and camogie season. Every winter I was experiencing a little bit of seasonal depression, and it was something that probably had to be pointed out to me, that, around November time every year, I would just be a little bit down or low or something. And it was my lifestyle that had changed that had led to that.

“So obviously there’s tools in place now to keep myself busy and my mind occupied, and to address those things, talk about my problems and just be healthier in general.

“So it’s an unbelievable thing to be a part of this evidence-based workshop along with other players. I’m doing it with the Meath footballer, Mary Kate Lynch tonight. Hopefully the young girls and boys can identify with us as players.”

You could not imagine a better role model.