O’Rourke urges public to get behind the team
THERE’S a common component ingrained deep inside the new wave of successful managers in ladies football; humility.
Shane Ronayne with Tipperary, Anthony Masterson with Wexford and, of course, Mick O’Rourke here with Wicklow; it’s never about them.
Maybe, rather than the bib saying ‘bainisteoir’, it should simply read ‘éascaitheoir’, after all that’s exactly what these modern managers do.
They are the great facilitators, they manoeuvre the pieces to the best of their ability but if the players don’t bite it’s a waste of time.
O’Rourke has done a masterful job with his squad this season, a year after the disappointment of losing the league final to Longford. However, he’s not interested in taking any credit for the continued improvement of the squad.
‘This group of 26 girls bonded so well together at the start of the year,’ he said.
‘They experienced a losing dressing room last year and they didn’t want to go back to that this year, listen we are just over the moon to have turned the result around this year.’
After losing one final, things can snowball and suddenly a team that is playing well can get in a rut in big games.
The first half of this game didn’t exactly pan out how it was drawn up but O’Rourke was delighted with his charges.
‘Very happy, obviously first half a lot of people will say we had those nine wide chances but once we were creating those chances that’s a positive.
‘We brought that with us into the second half, (the) conversions came in the second half.
‘Louth made a couple of errors maybe and gave us a couple of opportunities but at the same time the girls just worked tirelessly from start to finish, we knew they were a fitter group of girls, Wicklow. We set out at the start of the year to get this job done, now it’s completed.
‘It’s huge, winning becomes a habit, the girls this year, in fairness to them, they are the only team in four divisions that remained unbeaten throughout the whole league campaign, that’s a credit to them as a group of players, how much and how hard they worked in training and how well they kept each other going.’
With four weeks to go until his side face Division 3 runners-up Meath in the provincial championship, the boss has called on the county to get behind his in-form side.
‘They are a credit to Wicklow and I would like more people to get behind Ladies football in Wicklow as we go forward. We have the Leinster quarter-final now against Meath on the 3rd of June, which will be in Wicklow.’
Of course O’Rourke is right, if not now, on the crest of a wave, when will the county get behind this side. They are playing an exciting brand of football, with freedom and joy, and are sure to give the Royal women a good battle on the first weekend in June.