Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
DUGGAN LEARNS FROM THE LOWS
Just under three years ago, Emma Duggan scored 1-2 as Meath got the better of Sligo in the Lidl National Football League Division 3 final in Clones.
The Dunboyne youngster had just turned 17, she was in fourth year in school and about to embark on a remarkable journey alongside her fellow Royals.
The curve has pointed upwards since then, apart from a heart-breaking defeat to Tipperary in the 2019 TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Championship final at Croke Park.
Today Duggan and her Meath teammates return to St Tiernach’s Park as AllIreland senior champions but it has been a difficult couple of months.
The 19-year-old has learned what losing big games feels like again.
Her club St Peter’s Dunboyne lost a currentaccount. ie All-Ireland semi-final against Mourneabbey, Meath were beaten by Dublin just a few weeks ago and DCU Dóchas Éireann were knocked out of the Yoplait O’Connor at the semi-final stage.
Defeat
“The club All-Ireland semi-final was a big kick in the backside,” said Duggan who is a Glenveagh Homes Gaelic4Girls ambassador this year.
“We’d come off the back of a really, really successful year. It was a really hard defeat.
“I’ve talked to a couple of girls about it, we’d come off the back of a really long year. Motivation probably wasn’t quite there.
“Losing that game motivated me a bit more.
“I was nearly mad to get back in after that game again. It was a bad day but a lot of things happen for a reason.
“And the game for DCU,
I’m probably not quite over that yet. It was a really poor performance by ourselves.
“It was such a talented group with so much potential and it showed the fine margins. If you perform badly one day, you will pay for it.”
And Duggan has done really great things in her young career already. It began that day in the Monaghan sun when she dazzled the Sligo defence in a 4-11 to 1-7 success.
But four months after that, Duggan suffered defeat at Croke Park and she always looks back on the 2-16 to 1-14 loss to Tipperary as a turning point.
“As much as I say it was a really, really low point, I am really glad it happened because we have come on so much since then,” said Duggan.
“After that day we kind of just, we were sick of losing. We were sick of not being good enough to get over the line on the day.
“In 2020, we just took it upon ourselves to improve in so many ways, that we wouldn’t keep letting that happen on the big days, losing out.
“I think, as bad as it was, it’s been huge for us and I’ve been so, so lucky since.”
Pandemic
In 2020, Meath were at the right end of the standings in Division 2 of the Lidl NFL when that was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then the rescheduled TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Championship culminated in a 2-17 to 4-5 final victory over Westmeath.
Meath went on to win Division 2 last year before a summer that no-one will ever forget, least of all Duggan whose lobbed goal in the TG4 All-Ireland Senior final against Dublin will go down in Ladies football history.
Duggan won her first TG4 All Star, while her clubmate, Vikki Wall, was chosen as the TG4 Senior Players’ Player of the Year.
That duo returned to lead Dunboyne to a first Leinster senior club title but they were stopped next time out.
It’s back to business for Meath when they return to Clones for a Lidl NFL Division 1 semi-final against Mayo today.
Mayo put up some big scorelines against Westmeath, Galway and Donegal in the group stages and Duggan knows it won’t be easy to get back on track.
“We’re really, really looking forward to it,” said Duggan.
“Mayo are the team in form at the minute. There will be no complacency by us.”