Ahern says Wicklow believe they can do it
BRENDAN LAWRENCE
FOR loyal and dedicated Wicklow stalwart Laurie Ahern there’s no secret behind the success of the county team this year; it’s just a simple matter of a committed squad made up of a healthy blend of experience and youth playing the kind of football they are more than capable of and backing themselves all the way.
The Greystones native is one of the more senior members of the squad and she believes that it is the stepping up to the plate of the younger members of the squad that has drove the entire operation forward.
‘I’ve been playing 12 or 13 years. I started with Lorna (Fusciardi) so Lorna is still here. I think she started the year before me. But this is probably the furthest we’ve got, probably the best we’ve done in all my years, the best squad, it’s very tight, we’re all working for each other, all pulling in the same direction which is great,’ said Laurie.
‘There’s a lot of young girls here after stepping up this year. You would have thought they would have been inexperienced, but they have stepped up to the plate. The likes of Alanna Conroy, she’s so young and she’s had a superb season. I think everyone is shocked at how mature she seems on the pitch. She’s been absolutely brilliant.
‘So, there’s people coming into the squad like that and pushing on. I think that’s the good thing about this year. We’ve such a mix. You have Lorna Fusciardi coming back from having a baby last year and she’s been absolutely brilliant since she’s been back. It’s great to have that sort of mix.
“You have Laura Hogan, she’s played out of her skin this year. Niamh Mac (McGettigan) has been there since 2011 but she was only young back then, she’s come into her own big time. (This reporter suggests that Niamh McGettigan is a boss, Laurie agrees wholeheartedly). She’s brilliant, I love having here there. She’s came from being young and the quiet, the younger one in the corner to be such a leader on the pitch. A few players like that who I’ve got a chance to watch grow from being quiet and younger just watching, waiting and they’ve grown to be such leaders on the pitch and I almost look up to them. Like Sarah Miley, coming back from a year out with her cruciate, and she has been outstanding since she came back, and so patient as well.
‘There’s so many, there’s such depth in the squad. Sarah Jane Winder has had an outstanding season in full-back. I don’t think she realises how good she’s been. I think she was unlucky not to get team of the league. We’re waiting for her to get her point this season.
‘I think that’s the difference this year, the depth of the squad. We have a few girls who have gone away, J1s and travelling, but like we still have the guts of a great panel for championship and I just think that that has been the difference, like, down through the last few years. It’s been tough since we won the Junior All-Ireland in 2011, we had a few tough years after that, trying to get players in, a lot of players left, but I think for the first time in a long, long while that we’re back to where we should be. I thought we’d push on after 2011 but we didn’t so it’s almost a relief to be back where we should be,’ she said.
The final against Laois is going to be a tough game, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. Wicklow, Division 4 champions and unbeaten so far in 2018 are coming up against a Laois side operating out of Division 2 and having come through a battle with Wexford in the Leinster semi-final. Ahern is under no illusion as to the test that awaits the Garden County side, but she says that it is far from an impossible task.
‘It’s such a massive test for us because they are Division 2 and we are going in as massive underdogs. But, you seen us against Meath, all you need is a little bit of belief. We know we have the players, we know we have the ability, I think it’s going to be a massive ask but I really do think that we can do it, it’s 15 on 15 at the end of the day.
‘The good thing is that we don’t know too much about them, I like that in a game, we know what we can do, we don’t have to concentrate on what they can do. Just get on with it. I’m really looking to it, everyone is,’ she added.