Plenty done

at stadium xxyx

manager Ger Barton invited Aine to join in. That was her first hit of a drug that she has never shaken. As she says herself, she “never looked back”.

The Enniskerry woman got to enjoy a few years with her local club but had to seek pastures new at U-14 level. This was a regular stumbling block in recent years but Aine landed on her feet when her time came.

“I started out playing with a mixed team in Enniskerry right up until I was U14s. I was fortunate enough that I was part of the Wicklow Ladies Football Academy where there was a handful of us who came of age that we needed to find a girls team and Tony Poutch linked us with a very successful Stella Marris Team in Dublin winning many trophies at U14, U16 and U18.”

Aine has no complaints about mixing it with the opposite sex in her younger years as it prepared her better for her later years. When she looks at younger girls now, she’s delighted to see all the avenues available to them that were few and far between in her day.

“Playing with the boys was all I knew when I was younger and I think the older you get the more physical the game became but I believe that prepared me well to go play with the girls and probably gave me an extra edge.

“There has been massive change in the access to girls football since I started out playing - even at my local club in Enniskerry they have girls teams