CORA STANDS TALL AMONG GAA’S GREATS
IT was a moment so jawdroppingly good that Mayo manager Frank Browne demanded it be written down and recorded for posterity. It was the 2007 League quarter-final against Meath, one of those days when the ladies game is out of sight and mind, and there were far too few there to bear witness to Cora Stanton’s latest stroke of genius. ‘She put a ball over from the 45-metre flag with the outside of the boot. It was just like Maurice Fitzgerald in Thurles,’ recalls Browne. ‘There were a few local reporters behind me and I told them to write it down because we were in the presence of greatness, and we really are.’ That should not be doubted and while there will be enough intriguing sub-plots to tomorrow’s All-Ireland final showdown between Dublin and Mayo, it is the presence of the most
potent player in the history of Gaelic games that threatens to dwarf the occasion.
Mayo News journalist Edwin McGreal conducted an exhaustive audit of Staunton’s career and came up with the kind of stats to make the mouths of any aspiring forward water. In 66 Championship games, she has scored 59-476 — an average that runs in excess of 10 points a game, which is the highest average tally across genders and codes, surpassing even Henry Shefflin’s eight-point average in hurling. ‘She’s so humble about it too,’ adds Browne. ‘There’s no airs or graces or any rubbish like that. ‘There’s also just that ferocious will to win and if you are not doing it at training, she will call it out. She wants to be a winner all the time. At training if she wants to score 10 goals, she will.’ There’s more to her than just her scoring stats. She made her debut as a 14-year-old in 1996 and here she is, still going strong at the age of 35. ‘She’s just a pro, and I mean that in the best sense of the word,’ explains Browne ‘She looks after her body, she looks after her mind and she minds herself. ‘She’s got loads of natural God-given talent, there’s no doubt about that. ‘Many people sit on bar stools with loads of natural God-given talent but don’t do anything about it. ‘Her work ethic is absolutely second to none; she’ll be the first at training and the last to go. We hear that all the time about the greats, but it’s true. It’s how she looks after herself that has been key to her career.’ And what a career; she is a 10-time All-Star and a four-time All-Ireland winner, but the last of those medals came 14 years ago. The talk was that she, along with her fellow veterans Yvonne Byrne and Martha Carter, were going to hang up the boots before Browne — who is in his second stint as Mayo boss having led them to the 2007 final — had to coax them back. He insists that there was little persuading: ‘I said “Listen girls, we are still chasing the dream and we love to have you with us but you don’t owe anything to the Mayo jersey, to Mayo ladies football or to ladies football in general. You have given your all, I would love to have you back and if your decision is no, we will have a quiet beer and talk about the good times. ‘I genuinely meant that too. Cora has put her life on hold for 23 years. Yvonne has been doing it for 20 years. They did not owe anything to a Mayo jersey.’ The debt owed to Staunton is harder to accumulate, but Browne has a measure of her worth. ‘If you went out into the street now and asked people to name three female sports stars, they would probably say Sonia O’Sullivan, Katie Taylor and Cora Staunton. She’s one of those players like Gooch or Shefflin — Cora is Cora. That’s a sign you’ve made it.’