Miley ready for Laois test
Midfielder confident of win
IF there is a heaven after this life and if it resembles the An Tochar GAA pitch in Roundwood last Sunday morning then none of us will feel in any way shortchanged because a more idyllic place and beautiful morning you are never likely to see.
It’s training time for the Wicklow ladies and the first player in the gate looking all enthusiastic and bubbly at 8.30am is Clara’s Sarah ‘Smiley’ Miley.
Sarah has served the Wicklow ladies team superbly over the years and this season has been no different as both herself and her midfield partner Niamh McGettigan have toiled heroically in the engine room, driving the county on to their magnificent total of 11 victories on the trot to date and directly into a meeting with Laois in this year’s Leinster Intermediate football final in Netwatch Cullen Park this Sunday at 2pm.
As comfortable scoring as she is fielding or defending, Sarah Miley is a seriously talented footballer and, judging by attitude and body language on Sunday morning, the midfielder will leave nothing on the pitch in Netwatch Cullen Park as Wicklow go in search of provincial honours in what has been a truly wonderful season so far.
“I can’t wait now, in fairness (for the game). It’s something that not many people expected us to get into, but we knew from day one that it was a very realistic outcome, so we’re delighted to be there and we’re going to give it everything,” said Sarah.
The league campaign was nothing short of amazing as Mick O’Rourkle’s charges marched over team after team until they finally claimed the Division 4 crown and promotion with a resounding win over Louth.
But it was the win over Meath in Roundwood in the Leinster quarter-final that has got the country talking about this superb team and Sarah agrees that nobody outside the management or the players gave them a chance of getting over the Royals.
‘Absolutely not. Inside or management and within the camp we were the only ones who actually thought we could do it. But we did keep our heads. We went into it with open minds, but we know that we had played out of our skin in Division 4 and no-one was even coming close to us. So, we knew we were at that level, but it was just getting it out of us on the day and thankfully we did,’ she said.
‘It was tough. The realisation set in with us almost after the first five or 10 minutes, you know, that we were going to do it, or that we were able to do it. So, and while it was end to end stuff, we always knew, even when they did get back at us, we knew we could turn it over and we knew we had stuff like fresh legs off the bench, we knew ultimately that we were well able to do it and thankfully we pushed on,’ she added.
Sarah Miley says that the bond between the players is much stronger this season than in previous years and the healthy competition for places is what keeps the panel on their toes.
‘It’s been unbelievable. We’ve won every competitive game that’s come our way and we can’t really ask for more. I think we’re a tight group of girls. We’ve all had our goals set out from the beginning and we’ve worked really hard to get there. We’re probably close than we have been in other years, that’s stands to us in itself.
‘We see each other three or four times a week so naturally we’re going to be close whether we like it or not, but this management team came in last year. We had a much bigger squad last year, myself and Lorna (Fusciardi) weren’t part of it because I was injured, and she was pregnant and coming back into it this year everyone’s saying that it’s a completely different kind of atmosphere, the thing is everyone is fighting for places but at the same time everyone is pushing each other on so it’s not as if there’s anger, there’s competitiveness but it’s in a very good way,’ she said.
Keeping the unbeaten run going and securing provincial honours are the prizes up for grabs when Wicklow take on a quality Laois outfit who operate in Division 2. Sarah accepts that Wicklow are underdogs, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘We’re obviously underdogs, there’s no other way I’d prefer to be. Laois are a Division 2 team, they’re a good Division 2 team at that, and they’re just down from Senior so they’re going to be very, very tough, but I honestly believe that if we believe in ourselves and we play the way we know we can play, we can get over the line,’ she said.
The venue for the decider is Netwatch Cullen Park in Carlow and it is a football field that holds fond memories for Sarah Miley.
‘We would have played there when I first started playing, in two Leinster Junior finals, great venue and great pitch. I think it was 2010 and it was against Louth and we bet them well. And in 2011 we bet Louth as well and it was a fairly easy victory as well, but this is going to be a massive step up for us and it’s something that we have been working hard to get into, we haven’t been in a Leinster final since 2011 and we’ve managed to stay Intermediate, so this is a super opportunity for us,’ she said. 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 senor 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.