‘It would be brilliant to create history’
A brief chat with Aimi Healy is all you need to know how excited she is for Saturday. It’s Saturday this, Saturday that, Saturday the other.
On Saturday, Healy will lead out St. Patrick’s as captain in the intermediate championship against Valleymount. There should be no shortage of support for Healy and co. considering her club-mates will do battle in the senior championship afterwards so it could be a case of the last person to leave Wicklow Town being left with instructions to shut the gate.
It has the ingredients for a historic day for Pat’s and Healy feels her side are ready for the challenge that faces them even if they are something of a mystery.
“The atmosphere is very good. Everyone has positive vibes at every training session and we’re good to go come Saturday.
“We haven’t come across Valleymount yet this season but we do believe that they’re strong but I feel that we will be the better team on the day because we’re ready.
“We all have to go out and give it our best shot. We don’t know what Valleymount are like so we just need to go out and do what we’ve been doing all season.”
Pat’s may be second-guessing what Valleymount will bring to the table but Pat’s will be bringing a bunch of attackers who know where the goals are and Healy is not taking for granted what a special occasion Saturday could be for her club.
“We have got really good forwards and hopefully the scores will keep coming on Saturday.
“It’s such a privilege to have two teams in the county finals. This is our second team to reach a final so it’d be brilliant to win and create history.”
Healy handles herself quite well throughout the course of the brief phone interview. She is clear in her speech and her thoughts and there is little to suggest that she has been unnerved by the prospect of it. One thing that may be a tad more daunting is trying to rally up two dozen of your friends and teammates before they take to the battlefield but Healy has something up her sleeve - although she thinks it may not be needed.
“I’m thinking of a few things but hopefully the girls will know what to do and we just need to go out and give it our best. We’re ready for it. We just need Saturday to come.” A favourites tag has never kicked a point. Short odds at the bookies don’t score goals. Being tipped by the neutrals doesn’t help you get the best of your marker.
That’s why Mick Broderick isn’t giving all the prematch waffle any attention whatsoever.
Only one thing will decide whose arms are raised in victory on Saturday and it won’t be their reputations.
“Look, the past is no indication of what will happen on the day of the final. The favourites tag doesn’t bother me or carry any weight when people go out on the football pitch.
“We see it as another game and that’s the way we’ll approach it.”
Being the boss of a bunch of players like this is far from troubling. As the saying goes, hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard – not something that Broderick has to fear about his troops. Broderick is not exactly dipping his toes in management for the first time but this crop of stars continue to take him by surprise.
“They’re an extremely committed bunch of girls that have come together - not just this year but in previous years too and they work extremely hard. They are in the final on their merit.
“Their attendance at training and their application is superb; every single one of them. They’re coming