NIAMH HAPPY SHE REALISED ALL HER GOALS

Meath’s Niamh O’sullivan is happy with her decision to retire from inter-county football.

a senior debutant as a teenager in 2008, the Dunshaughlin native previously stepped away from the Royal panel for a number of years before returning to the fold in 2016.

Meath dropped down from the tg4 all-ireland senior Championship at the end of her comeback year only to eventually reclaim a top-tier spot with an intermediate success in 2020.

In addition to claiming Division two and Division One Lidl National Football crowns in the same years, O’sullivan was a pivotal figure as Meath secured back-to-back all-ireland SFC titles in 2021 and 2022 with eamonn Murray at the helm.

Yet last year’s Brendan Martin Cup campaign ended in a quarter-final defeat to Kerry and this proved to be her final game for the Royals.

“there’s never really a right time to hang up the boots. You’re always kind of asking yourself ‘am I doing the right thing?’ If I was a bit different and maybe more emotional, I probably would be questioning my decision, but there’s serious talent coming through on that team and my old legs were never going to last forever with these young girls coming up,” O’sullivan explained.

Medals

“It has been a magical few years. Would I have ever thought that I’d have three all-ireland medals in my back pocket? absolutely not. I always wanted to just play in Croke Park. It didn’t matter if we’d won, lost or drawn in Croke Park, I just wanted to be able to say I played in Croke Park.

“to have been able to play there on numerous occasions has been just an absolute honour.

“It has just been incredible and I’m very lucky I’ve a supportive family. Obviously it’s a sad decision, but as I keep saying, it’s a very happy one.”

having announced her retirement on the same weekend, O’sullivan was in Pairc tailteann last month to see Meath overcome Dublin in the Lidl NFL.

at half-time — with the Royals in the lead by 2-3 to 0-3 — O’sullivan was introduced to the sizeable crowd at the venue.

although it was a touch surreal for the st seachnall’s Ns primary school teacher to be there as a spectator, it was something that she enjoyed nonetheless.

Season

O’sullivan had spoken to new Meath boss shane Mccormack in advance of the season and while he couldn’t persuade her to remain on, his plans for the team have left her excited.

“I didn’t know it was happening (her introduction to the crowd)! It was a nice surprise. Very happy moments, probably surreal that I won’t be in a green jersey again. even going to the game, it felt really weird.

“I didn’t know how my emotions would be when I got there, but I was very happy and I was delighted that I went and showed support for the girls.

“It was just weird being in the stand, because I’d be so used to just being on the pitch warming up there, but it was great to see it from the outside in.

“the new ideas that shane has brought in as the manager and the different warm-up style he has introduced to the team now.”

and young baby Daithi? He really sees the value of that.”

As a manager, Mulqueen says Fitzgerlad is “100 per cent organised.”

“He’s probably three or four steps ahead of people if that makes sense. He really thinks. Davy could have a plan and you could only see it coming when you are caught in it.”

And Mulqueen has been. Regularly.

Lawn

“I was cutting my lawn one day. He called up and said, ‘Are you free for an hour? Would you come with me?’

“Next thing we were up watching a match with an intermediate team called Killanena and I was training them the next six weeks with him.

“I didn’t know I was doing it and we won the intermediate final. He knows what he wants.

“Determination, vision, that’s his attributes.

“I have worked with many managers. He has an awful lot of good qualities you take away, and say he’s right in what he’s doing.

“We have our blazing rows, myself and Davy, but you hug at the end of it. He’s that type of character. He’s loyal, a fella you could go to.

“If you are a player and you buy into his package, loyalty to him and loyalty back is a big issue – a good thing.”

Mulqueen says there can be “casualties and people will slip away” but Fitzgerald gets the best out of what he has.

He continues:“davy’s regime is very intense when you buy into.

“You are talking about some of the boot camps and some of the things we did, jumping out on players at 1 or 2 in the morning with flashlights.

“There is only so much of that you can do. Parking vans and flashlights. You couldn’t write some of the stuff we have done.

“This is what he brings, a novelty. You get the last drop out of every player but there are only so many times that can happen.”

Mulqueen, who led St Joseph’s Doora Barefield to an Allireland club title back in

1999, and managed

Liam Mellows to a first Galway title since 1970, back in 2017, says the modern manager has a shelf life.

And Fitzgerald is no different.

Outside managers rarely last beyond three years.

Fitzgerald has managed better than most:

Waterford (4),

Clare (5),

Wexford (5) and Waterford (2 to date).

“It’s the world we live in,” says Mulqueen. “Davy has probably done it in different places and performed in different counties as well as on the pitch and off it. That’s the difference I see with him and other managers.

Fresh

“You go somewhere and you have to start fresh again. That’s a process. He builds. It’s a fit for some and it’s not for others. “If something is going against him in a match Davy could manufacture, or banter or row – and that’s the vision – two steps ahead. “Davy will have many things in his pocket. I’d sit down and he’d show me. “Even when we were doing the

Clare thing, we did up stuff. We’d have Plan A, Plan B – even to nearly Plan Z.’

“He has ideas and some people say, ‘Well is that too much tactics?’ Or, ‘Are you overthinking it?’

“Sometimes when we were into video analysis, it was, ‘Ah Jesus, another video’.

“There was a purpose in what we were doing and with Clare it was successful. It was with a group that wanted it at the time because we hadn’t won.

“They wanted to be fed. At that time we were coming with stats, clips, video analysis and S and C stuff that was only finding its feet.

“He had all that stuff well researched. He gets the right people around him and people that he can trust. That is part of what works for him.

“He’s done three or four years in places. It’s probably the entire package that Davy offers that I’d see as different.”

LOUIS Mulqueen has enjoyed a ringside seat for the continued evolution of Davy Fitzgerald the player and coach.

Mulqueen trained Fitzgerald at under-21 and senior level before teaming up with him in various managerial roles, including for Clare’s shock 2013 Allireland triumph.

“He has evolved from being a very, very good county player that won everything you could at county and club level,” says Mulqueen.

“He was a Sixmilebridge icon when I was with St Joseph’s playing against him.

“Davy was the man to beat in ‘the ‘Bridge’ goal. He was a playing legend – club and county – but then to take that step up to winning at senior level then with clubs.

Watch

“He has done it with LIT (2005/07 Fitzgibbon Cups) and at intercounty. He is probably a complete package in the sense that you watch Arsenal and you watch Arsene Wenger.

“People say he wasn’t a good soccer player but he was a good manager.

“This fella (Fitzgerald) was an excellent player and an excellent manager.

“He kind of learned from his own playing days I would think and then applied it to a managerial role.”

Mulqueen reckons the hurt of losing the 2002 All-ireland final was a big driver for Fitzgerald.

“I remember after losing myself, himself and ironically (Brian) Lohan couldn’t eat the dinner,” says Mulqueen.

“That’s what he brings. The elation of winning and what it means when he doesn’t. ”

TRIUMPHS: Niamh O’sullivan during her successful playing days