95 DARAGH SMALL TALKS TO NIAMH DUGGAN “With Annaghdown it means so much to everyone in the parish. I know it’s a cliché but you’re playing with the people you grew up with” It’s Tuesday the 13th of November and Niamh Duggan is facing into one of the more intriguing weeks of her illustrious playing career to date. She seems calm but focused on the job at hand, as her club Annaghdown, are set to play Thomas Davis in the Junior Ladies All-Ireland Club Football Championship semi-final the following Sunday. “For the past two weeks we’ve been training away, and were carrying a few ‘niggly’ injuries but hopefully we’ll be alright on Sunday”. We had a table quiz here in Regan’s on Sunday night and there was a massive turnout, so people are getting behind us and it’s great”. As her puppy, Pebbles, runs wild around the kitchen not liking the new arrival on her territory no doubt, Niamh sits downs and introduces me to what has been a fascinating career in a sport where adversities come part and parcel. For years now Ladies Gaelic football has stuttered in the shadows of their male counterparts. Niamh has fought through the pain and come out the other side with her head held high. “We don’t get the recognition but it’s up to the ladies to support their game in the same way the men support their own. Sometimes even at the inter-county matches there are only families and friends present. Really it’s up to the ladies and the county boards to support us more but until that happens there will be poor attendances at matches. That’s what drives the men’s game on”. Ex-players need to start showing a bit more of an interest. A lot of them finish up in the game and don’t get involved as much as they could”. “In the past ten years the game has definitely picked up a bit due to the work of the lady’s association. They’ve been great in terms of getting sponsors on board and they’ve done their best to help promote it. In Galway it has really picked up there with the help of the local papers. “I wouldn’t be too interested in going to a club match, but that’s where the changes need to come. They need to build an interest so that people will go to the matches and not just have the families and friends”. Just under ten years after one of her greatest triumphs, the former Fingallians clubwoman has her sights set on entering the history books once more. Nothing like an underdog story to whet the appetite and this is where she has always seemed to strike lucky. In 2004, Galway under PJ Fahy, seemed to come from nowhere, “his positivity just brought everyone together, and got us playing as a team which got us through a number of tight matches that year”. The similarities are uncanny with this year’s Annaghdown side, who since their demoralising defeat at the hands of Geevagh in the 2006 Connacht intermediate decider seemed to go into a state of excelled regression “It was disappointing, we should have definitely beaten them the first day, the team that comes back in the drawn game always has an advantage and that told for a lot in Tuam. There was only a point or two between us at the end and psychologically it was a huge blow”. However, this year has been somewhat of a watershed for the team, the return of a few former greats such as Duggan has brought some much needed experience to the fold. Martina Coen and Collette Walsh’s great work at underage level has also meant that the youthful exuberance is tangible amongst the squad and “with Thomas Murphy and Pauline Curry coming in they bring a lot of understanding and a good buzz to the table”. Niamh’s knowledge of the game has been invaluable to the Annaghdown cause this year having previously played with the Swords based Fingallians in the Dublin Senior Club Championship. “Dublin is more competitive with more teams and more players”. Even despite playing in an uncustomary role of centre-back Niamh has shone and her club have flourished. They battled their way through a hugely competitive Galway Championship, defeating Leitir Mor in the final where Niamh’s predecessor in the forward line Grainne Barrett, scored 3 goals. “The competition we faced in Galway was fierce. “We hadn’t won any game easy, only by a point or two. ” Annaghduff were raging favourites in the semi-final having destroyed all that was put in front of them in Leitrim. Yet after an initial scare, Annaghdown wrestled control of the match in the second-half and found their way back to the once poisoned chalice of the Connacht final. Many of this team were present in 2006 and the same mistakes weren’t going to be repeated. Niamh was one of the stars of the show in McHale Park, Castlebar as Annaghdown won their first ever provincial football title. It was her goal that seized the initiative for the women from Galway as they won out on a scoreline of 1-9 to 0-6. “It was great down there in McHale Park, there were so many people from the club that came down including the men’s, lady’s and hurling sides a like”. This match has led Niamh to her current predicament as she looks forward to a meeting with a Thomas Davis side who finally won their first county title at the fourth time of asking this year. Despite her successes in the game so far, Niamh remains grounded and always remembers where it all started. “I’ve been lucky throughout my career even in national school we had John Joe Dunne and Christina Lawless that would have got us involved from the start. “And then Marion Scully would have helped us set up the teams and make us realise that the players were there. I wouldn’t have started playing football if it wasn’t for them. “As I said I’ve been lucky and I feel the people that started us off all those years ago are just as important as the people that are there today and those who helped us to the all-Ireland”. Niamh’s palpable love for the game is also set to extend further as she has completed a coaching course with the GAA while she was based in the capital. “I am very interested in it, even through Dublin GAA we had different workshops with Paudie Butler on the hurling side and John Morrissey on the footballing side of things. “They gave us different talks and there are good coaches up there with the likes of Ger O’Connor giving us lots of ideas, yeah it’s definitely something I would like to do. ” Her love of sport reaches far beyond the boundaries of the GAA. She has always had a keen interest in soccer, “when I went to Headford we won a school’s all-Ireland there and that continued on to UCD. I played there for a while but I drifted away from that. I am actually looking to return in the winter with Castlebar Celtic as a few of the girls are also thinking of picking it up again”. Saying all that having grown up around the time of the great all-Ireland winning Galway sides of 1998 and 2001, Niamh told me how her sporting idol would definitely be Padraig Joyce. I leave Niamh’s comfortable surroundings as she prepares for a training session in a good old fashioned Irish winter’s evening. Her enthusiasm for the game is as good now as it was just under ten years ago when she claimed the greatest success of all. Another qualified primary school teacher out of work, Niamh’s outlook is admirable. Her leadership attributes and refreshing positivity are something that wouldn’t go astray with the youth of today Niamh Duggan BY DARAGH SMALL
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