SHOW WHITE
Julia hoping for similar ending to final 12 months on
JULIA WHITE popped up with the dramatic winner in last year’s senior camogie final but it was a remarkable success for the Cork attacker to even take part
It was towards the end of 2015 and the Cork attacker had the world at her feet. She had bagged her fourth All-ireland senior medal and started a new job teaching in Kilkenny city’s famed Loreto nursery.
Looking to make some friends in a new place, she joined up with a seven-a-side soccer crew that included Anne Dalton and Denise Gaule. They were there the Saturday her Achilles tendon snapped and her troubles didn’t end there.
“It was a freak accident” recalls White. “When it first happened it felt like somebody kicked me. I turned around to look who had done it and there was nobody there. I just hopped back up – you’d be used to getting knocks.
“Then I went to run off and collapsed. You’re disconnected from your body, there was no support.”
The following year was a writeoff. It is funny now that she uses the same term to describe 2017, even though her name will be indelibly linked with the campaign as she claimed her fifth title and Cork’s record 27th in the most dramatic fashion.
“It was going fine and then I fractured my foot around March,
April. We didn’t pick up on it properly until June and I didn’t really get sorted until the end of July so that was a killer,” she said.
“It was a race against time then. Obviously it ended nicely but 2017 was a bit of a write-off really, apart from those few minutes.”
Before all that, in 2008, when the Douglas prodigy was captain of Cork minors, on the intermediate team and in her first year as a panellist with the seniors, she was struck down by glandular fever. It has continued to linger, flaring up again in 2012 and causing her to miss the All-ireland final, when she was scheduled to lead her team out as skipper. There was another bout in 2014 but by now, she was able to recognise the signs and manage the situation. Manager Paudie Murray gave her a month off and she was back doing damage on the pitch for the Rebels at HQ that September. “You’re not getting the best of yourself and it affects you mentally then” she says of the glandular fever. “You think you’re not fit or you’re just not performing”
The struggles on the pitch prompted ongoing battles in her head. And she acknowledges that if she had her way, she would not be playing with Cork now. “When the fractured foot happened, I definitely wanted to give up. I tried to give up I suppose, being honest. I just had a really good support network. With family, seeing people around me like Briege Corkery, who were never-say-die, and definitely Paudie has shown great belief in me. But I wanted to give up. I made the phone call. ‘I can’t do it.’ But they all rallied around me.
“Mazzer (O’brien) would have worked a lot with me. Through his sheer annoying me – he wouldn’t leave me alone!
“Sometimes you’d get three phone calls a day off him. He’s a great way of knowing if you’re up or down. I would give a lot of credit to him and to Paudie, for having him involved with us and having the belief in me and not letting me give up.
“My lowest moment was last summer, at the height of the Championship. I had gotten over the worst thing I thought could happen with the Achilles tendon. Then that happened and I knew my summer was gone.”
This summer has one last act for White and Cork.