Beaten in their last two All Ireland Semi Finals, Carlow will try to end the heart break and face Limerick in the decider this year, says Vice Captain Roisin Bailey.
Now into her second year playing for Carlow, Roisin Bailey could be 60 minutes away from a day out in Croke Park, an exciting encounter for her side, but for Roisin Bailey she has had a long arduous journey to wear the Carlow jersey.
Named to start at Midfield in tomorrow’s Semi-Final, Bailey talks about how she originally was playing football in Wicklow, but a transfer having been away for the sport for three years, gave her a new chance in Carlow.
“I suppose I have a bit of a back story with my football so, I’m actually originally from like I’m living in Wicklow, so I started playing I’d say when I was about four or five, like football is a massive thing in my family.
My dad would have played for Carlow, my brother plays football obviously as well, so it’s obviously a massive thing, but I would have played for a club in Wicklow, you know a small club and it kind of got to the stage where there was no team for me so I ended, I didn’t play football for for three years it was.
And then eventually I got a transfer to my current club in St Anne’s, so that’s Tullow/Grange that’s where my dad is originally from, it’s 10 minutes the other way, so that’s when it really kind of really started for me. I started playing with St Anne’s, I had 2 years with St Anne’s, then I got called into the county panel, it’s really only my 4th year I suppose playing football in Carlow and my second year on the Carlow panel.
It was a long kind of way to get here and I suppose when I didn’t play football for those three years, it was a real struggle trying to get transfers and stuff, you know, with the Wicklow County Board. I know there was a lot of people in Carlow who really kind of fought to try to get me to where I am now, so it kind of makes it all the more sweet, you know, when when you do get to these big days and you can think back and kind of makes it all worth it i know my mum and dad would be kind of the same the same thought ’cause they pushed so hard to get me to where I am now so yeah it makes it all the more sweet.”
The 20 year old, is balancing her time with work and college to play football for Carlow, along with some teammates, she played for UCD in the O’Connor Cup, but while the going is tough, balancing everything, Bailey believes that it is all worth it for the enjoyment you get out of it.
“I’m a student, in my third year of college at UCD and then I work kinda part time, well five days during the summer, obviously the money is needed going back to college, it is tough to manage it between kind of gym sessions, training sessions and working around hour’s at work.
I think when I was in college, college kind of tends to take a backfoot when it comes to football so, one of the girls Sarah Doyle I live with her in college as well and we were playing, me her and Cliodhna (Ní She), were playing football in college as well as we were on the O’Connell Cup panel.
Then, you know, we were coming down for training sessions as well, so it was busy, like I was training four days a week for football and then there was gym sessions, running sessions and then obviously there’s exams and assignments and stuff take to kind of take into consideration but so it obviously is busy huge commitment but it’s all worth it at the end of the day for the love of it.”
Facing into their third consecutive Semi-Final, Carlow who have never made the All Ireland Final, but look like a solid strong outfit this season, Bailey says the training has been tough, but exciting, the chance to play in Parnell Park on Sunday, will be huge for Carlow, knowing what lies ahead if they win.
“It’s a huge game of course, I suppose there’s probably a huge mental excitement and especially in the last couple of training sessions like I know last night, it was really exciting and like there was no kind of letting up. It wasn’t an easy training session you know, we kind of going hell for leather, I suppose and it was, you know, it’s it’s really a chance for us and like there’s a huge confidence as well among the team and like excitement, like we’re going back into the dressing room last night and we’re kind of all saying, you know, we can’t wait for Sunday now.
Like we put in so much work all year and it’s just kind of excitement again to get to somewhere like that, the work we’ve put in it’s kind of to get to this stage now to have such a big game and have it somewhere like Parnell Park like it’s it’s hugely exciting for us as a group of girls and well deserved I suppose after the work we have put in.”
The challenge of Down will be a new one for Carlow, the sides not meeting previously, Down fighting to get to Intermediate having dropped down last year, Bailey describes how sometimes fear can come in when they meet a side who beat them before, but with Down, they have done the homework and will be going into the tie with confidence.
“No, it’s completely new we’ve never played Down, obviously they’re after coming down from immediate last year, so like you said, it’s a huge challenge but I think the fact that we probably haven’t played them sometimes I think what sets in with us as a team is probably an element of fear and when we played a team before it’s kind like geez they beat us last year now and we have to go out and kind of put it up to them again.
Whereas you know with Down obviously we’ve done our research on them, we’ve looked at the videos, we’ve you know we’ve talked about them a lot and you know we’ve kind of identified areas where we think we can kind of expose them and I suppose they’re the exact same, but it’s nice to kind of have a fresh team something new that you know we’ve nothing to lose and all to gain you know.”
Ed Burke took up the role of manager last year, seeing them make the Semi-Finals, the thoughts of last year can linger on the mind a little, but they have some fresh faces in says Bailey, a new fresh side compared to last year.
Experience too in their ranks, some of their squad have played in finals before for Carlow, but Bailey believes that they have performed well and no reason why they cannot line out in Croke Park on the 13th of August, we learned who they will face this afternoon.
“I suppose, I think obviously last year was our first year with the current management, the year before I wasn’t involved in the team and I think there’s, you know the first semi-final against Antrim two years ago, I suppose a lot of them girls, there’s still a kind of lot still playing, but we’ve really a new kind of young fresh team even kind of compared to last year and without management last year.
It was obviously disappointing to get that far and then you know to lose to Antrim in that way, but I suppose you know it’s not a sense of kind of looking back and thinking oh God, well we got this this very last year and you know we’ve got beat kind of considerably I suppose, you know it’s it’s a fresh year and I think we’ve been building for the last two years and we’ve been building towards this point and I remember last year Ed (Burke) would have always said to us you know like you need to separate the performances from the results and this year that was you know kind of the mantra last year and this year it’s kind of like well now we need the results as well as the performance.
I think it was kind of it’s a building block and this year this is our real goal I suppose probably a two year plan for management coming in, you know, it’s not something that you just, you don’t just win All Ireland straight away. So we’ve really been working for the past two years to get to this point, so I don’t think we’re looking back on it. No, I hope we’re not anyways and I hope, you know, we’re all kind of on the same page that, you know it’s an absolutely brilliant opportunity and there’s no reason that we can’t push on again and get to Croke Park on the 13th of August.”
Full Interview with Roisin below:
Diarmuid Kearney
Diarmuid Kearney is a freelance Sports Journalist based in Co Kerry. He has more than 5 years experience covering domestic and international soccer for different media organisations, while also working for local and national print and digital organisations covering GAA.