CYC ambassador and Waterford camogie player Niamh Rockett pictured at the CYC Launch 2024. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfil
By Paul Keane
She isn't far off completing camogie's grand slam, an achievement that would rightly earn Niamh Rockett a place in the history books.
The experienced Waterford attacker has already won All-Ireland junior, 2011, and intermediate, 2015, titles - starting and scoring in each of those finals - and came so close to completing the hat-trick last August.
Waterford made it through to a first All-Ireland senior camogie final in 78 years but were soundly beaten on the day by Cork, putting Rockett back to the starting line in her personal quest.
Despite a long-term knee problem which she has dealt with throughout her 16-season career, the schoolteacher from the St Anne's club has come back for more in 2024.
And she has been an ever present so far in their All-Ireland group campaign which has two games left to run, against Antrim tomorrow and a final round fixture at home to Derry.
It's a big ask considering the strength of sides like holders Cork, Galway and current National League champions Tipperary, who beat Waterford last month, but having been told at 16 that she could end up in a wheelchair at 30 if she kept playing camogie due to knee problems, Rockett knows impossible is just a challenge waiting to be conquered.
Asked at the launch of the GAA's Continental Youth Championships, which will take place in late July in Boston, if all the stress around minding her knee is worth it, Rockett smiled.
"Not after the All-Ireland final last year, no!" she said. "But yeah, it is. My dream would be to get the junior, intermediate and senior All-Irelands. I don't know if any camogie player has done it. I don't think I'd be seen ever if it happened! I think I'd be gone for a month, you'd have to send out a search party in Waterford for me if I got the three of those because I think that would be just the pinnacle of my career.
"It wouldn't be any All-Stars or Player of the Match awards, it would be getting three All-Ireland medals in three different grades. Given what happened (with the diagnosis) before that, it would be great.
"There's such a small margin between all the teams at the moment that it's so hard to get there. We should have really performed better last year in the All-Ireland final given it's so hard to get into that position.
"But hopefully we'll have a chance to redeem ourselves this year."
It looks like Waterford will be boosted in their bid for a place in the top three of their group, and qualification for the All-Ireland quarter-finals at least, by the return of All-Star defender Vikki Falconer. She could even feature against Antrim following her recovery from the cruciate knee ligament injury sustained early in last year's final defeat to Cork.
"She's going to probably see a bit of game time, it's the first time that she's going to be togging out this weekend," said Rockett happily. "She's flying it in training so I'd say she'll see a bit of game time against Antrim. She's got the go ahead that she's fully okay now."
Rockett has been that soldier herself, laid low by a serious knee injury. Over the years she has had numerous surgeries on her left knee after it was initially suggested in her teens that she may have to have both her knees broken and realigned. That was back in 2009. She's thankful to be still going strong but there's a toll to be paid too.
"Getting the recovery in is massive for me," she said of her week to week routine. "Ice baths, plunge pools, the sauna, steam room, just getting the heat into it, stretching it out every single day. That's after helping me massively. I'll always find half an hour, 45 minutes, after games, after training."
And yet there are still nights when the schoolteacher is in 'excruciating pain'. It could last for days. Then a clear run for a couple of weeks.
"I wasn't happy that the physio pulled me out for the last match in Munster because of the pain in my knee, he was like, 'We need you right for the Championship'," said Rockett. "We didn't talk for about a week but we're back friends again!
"He often says to me that he's wise to my tricks now, that if I'm on the physio bed and he asks me how painful the knee is at night I'd say 'grand', even though I could be in excruciating pain! So now he catches my hand, so when he's pushing the knee, it's about my reaction now so I can't just squeeze the bed and say 'it's grand'. He's after realising a trick he has!"
With all of that in mind, nobody would begrudge Rockett a senior All-Ireland medal to complete the set.
"The margin is getting smaller between all the teams but we definitely are hoping to get into the knock-out stages and after the All-Ireland final last year, we really want to rectify the performance in the final," she said.
"It was a really poor performance considering the amount of support that Waterford had there and the drive that we had going in there. We all let ourselves down that day and we really want to look like we're not a one-trick pony. We want to get back to that stage again."