Aherne eyeing a Dubs double
SINEAD Aherne is a passionate Dublin supporter but she didn’t go to Croke Park last Sunday. She felt that there would be too much tension at headquarters and her investment in the game would expend too much energy. It was tense enough, watching from the comfort of her own home. ‘We had our own session in the morning and I decided to take it easy,’ the Dublin Ladies’ captain explained. ‘A lot of energy goes into those games, even as a fan, and I felt that I would be expending a lot of energy, especially the way that the match went. It was such a tight one. ‘It was nice, to go to training and relax afterwards, well relax as much as you can when you are watching a nail-biter like that one.’ With so much cross-over between the male and female panel — the girlfriends of Dean Rock, Paul Flynn and Con O’Callaghan will all be playing for the Dubs tomorrow — Aherne hopes that her team can benefit from the feel-good factor that has been in the capital this past week. ‘It would be nice to see. Obviously, we had a record crowd for the final last year, 35,000. If we can get those numbers again, it would be brilliant.’ Twelve months ago, Aherne and Dublin suffered the most bitterly disappointing defeat, as a point was controversially ruled wide — Hawkeye wasn’t turned on — and Cork won by the narrowest of margins. The Dublin players didn’t endure a winter of discontent, though, as a new management team was appointed with Mick Bohan returning to the helm after more than a decade. ‘We had to park last year’s final fairly quickly,’ Aherne points out. ‘We had a new management coming in and they met all the players in November, so you have to move on very quickly after that. The league was spent getting familiar with the new players and everyone getting familiar with the management.’ Aherne and Bohan went back a long way — it was during the Clontarf man’s first tenure that she made
her inter-county debut as a 17-year-old. Since then, Bohan has gone on to work for Jim Gavin in his Dublin backroom for two years whilst also working with Colm Collins and the Clare men’s footballers last year. It is clear that he has learnt a lot in the past few years. ‘It’s a long time ago now,’ Aherne spoke of her first encounter with Bohan. ‘It was my first year in a senior inter-county set-up and it was unreal for me that I was called in. I remember as a 17-yearold, thinking that Mick had this incredible intensity and passion to him. ‘This time around, he is still an intense guy but he is much more focused, he has obviously learnt a huge amount along the way. When Dublin and Mayo met in a pulsating AllIreland semi-final in Breffni Park last year, it was ultimately Aherne’s accuracy that won the game for the Dubs. They aren’t as reliant on their captain in 2017, but she is still counted upon to find the posts. ‘I suppose I am reasonably happy with my own form. I am getting a few scores on the board. But it is just about getting the right person in the right place. That is very much what we focus on. It doesn’t matter who gets the scores on the board as long as we finish them.’