AMANDA MCLOONE IS the first to admit that she was never the best footballer when she was younger.
“I was terrible,” she laughs. Straight out. Plain and simple. And that wasn’t the case for Gaelic football alone, she adds, it applied to sports across the board.
Growing up in Roscommon, she tried her hand at everything and anything. No good at any of them, she grins. But athletics — she was ‘ok’ at that. The stories are plentiful as she casts her mind back and takes a trip down memory lane.
She fondly remembers her Dad buying her her first pair of spikes. And pretty much as soon as she had them on her feet, she decided that was that. Just gave it up.
“I’d say he wanted to kill me,” she tells The42 at the launch of the John West National Féile competitions 2018, explaining how she came up with the bright idea to focus on just one sport. Maybe the problem was that she was trying to do too much. But no.
Concentrating on Gaelic football, things remained the same.
“People are like, ‘Were you really that bad?’ I was the girl they just stuck in goals. I remember it so well. This girl who was no better than me got my boots because she had forgotten her boots — I swear to God — she forgot her’s and I had to give up mine.
“I was on Roscommon panels when I was younger but when I say I was nowhere near a team, I really do mean that. It was kind of a case of whoever came to matches got on the panel. I was never anywhere near the team, I was there for the craic, just a bit of a laugh.”
There was one standout reason she played though, to impress her Dad.
“That was huge,” she continues. “That was the main thing. That was all it was about.
“My sister was really good at everything. I had a bit of a competitive nature, like, she was brilliant at everything and I was shit at everything. I was like, ‘Ok, I have to start getting better at something because otherwise it’s just going to be so hard on me, I’m not going to be able to do anything!’
“She had an All-Ireland medal when she was like seven and there was me trying to be like, ‘I’m here too!’ I had to do something.”
The enthusiasm was there, the proficiency just not so much. Well, skill more than anything, and back then the game was all about skill. It’s still not her forté, McLoone concedes, but she’s thankful for how the game has evolved.
She used her speed, strength and athleticism to her advantage and went from there.
The path to where she is today has been by no means smooth. Far from it, in fact. One of many ups and downs, highs and lows, obstacles and challenges that pop up along the journey that is life.
27 now, she’s a pivotal member of the Roscommon senior team, leading the charge from the half-back line. She’s a fully qualified nutritionist and also has a degree in fitness instruction and personal training, plying her trade close to home.
McLoone manages a gym, Fullbody Workhouse in Roscommon, and speaks glowingly of her work there and juggling various different commitments on and off the field.
There are very early mornings and late nights, with a lot of time spent on the road as she lives across the border in Westmeath. She recently transferred from her native St Faithleach’s to Athlone outfit Garrycastle, which has helped to an extent.
“Travelling for work, county and club all got a little bit too much so it does make a difference,” she continues. “You’re up at 5 o’clock in the morning so every hour counts.
“There are times when it does get on top of you. You’re trying to hold down a job as well, people forget that this (football) is just a hobby at the end of the day.
“I know the travelling doesn’t sound that much but when you’re doing it every single day, and training on top of that. Days can be quite long.”
It’s clearly evident that she loves what she does though, and her patent interest in all things fitness has complimented her inter-county career in more ways than one in the past.
The fact that her job comes with flexibility is helpful as well as the other obvious advantages in strength and athleticism on the field of play, but she really saw it reap its benefits when she was struck down with the dreaded cruciate injury in August 2014.
Late that October, she had her surgery, and one moment in particular stands out.
“The anaesthetist was like ‘You know you’re not going to come back as good as you are,’” she recalls, still with a sense of disbelief in her voice.
“I was like, ‘What? Is that a challenge?’ I was literally getting the stuff pumped into me. I was like, ‘Eh, thanks… I’m going to prove you wrong’. It was a big thing to come back from.
“I think I just had a good mental focus. I really do. Mentally, it wasn’t too bad for me. It was painful, don’t get me wrong but it definitely wasn’t one of the really, really bad incidents.
“In my head, I was always like, ‘You know what, I’m going to get better’ I think my competitive nature and line of work helped.”
She was strict with her rehab, followed it all to a tee and went on to well and truly prove the infamous anaesthetist wrong. She returned to training in April 2015, played the full championship with club and returned to the inter-county scene with a bang.
In an All-Ireland qualifier success over Tipperary: “I scored the winning point!” McLoone beams.
“Very unusual,” she laughs, thinking back to that girl whose boots were handed to someone else. ”It was a hand-passed point though… but it was great coming back and that was a big boost of confidence.”
That same year, her life changed forever and she was faced with a much bigger obstacle than her ACL recovery. Her Dad passed away following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
“That was huge,” she tears up slightly.
“He was the reason that I got into sport, he was the reason that I kept on sport because I really could have given up I was so bad, but I kept pushing on.
“I miss the post-match analysis and things like that. Not being able to pick up the phone is a big thing. Confidence was something I really struggled with playing football because I wasn’t good. It was always something that I needed off people, if you know what I mean. He was really good for doing it for me. That was a really big thing.”
Laura Flemming, Jenny Higgins, Joanne Cregg, Natalie McHugh, Amanda McLoone at the interprovincal tournament 2017 in Monaghan today. pic.twitter.com/al60DlyqVx
— Roscommon LGFA (@RoscommonLGFA) May 20, 2017
Going back to football after his passing was incredibly difficult. That intangible link, that undeniable common ground between father and daughter.
“Really, really tough,” she agrees.
“People are like ‘Oh, how are Christmases without him and his birthday without him?’ To be honest with you, and not trying to be awful but those things didn’t really make a difference to me.
“It was like my first (Roscommon) game, my first club game, and him not being there on the sideline. Little things like that. Last year was the first time I was picked for the Connacht Interpros and it was a massive, big deal for me and I couldn’t ring him up and say that to him.
“It’s those little, tiny things. Sport was like our big connection, like really big connection. My sister has since moved to Florida. It was like I didn’t have him, I could talk to her and now I’m like, ‘Ok, I just have to believe in myself now!’ It’s a big change.”
She adds: “It was so ironic, the first game I played after he had passed away which was say three months later was right beside the graveyard he was buried in.
“There was no reason for the game to be there. We were playing Offaly, the pitch is in Longford, we’re Roscommon. It was so so weird.”
Her father’s direction and influence on her playing career is something she’s fostered and has been handing on. She’s involved with the Roscommon U14 team as a coach and has been offering her knowledge and expertise on that front.
“They love it, they’re so easily influenced and that’s why I wanted to get involved with the coaching. They look up to you and it’s really nice in that sense. It’s really rewarding, I love it.”
And likewise, her own football is going well. Roscommon narrowly missed out on a place in the Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 3 semi-final, but their attention has firmly switched to the intermediate championship.
“In fairness we are really, really gunning to win Connacht this season. We’re really gunning. We have Sligo on the 12th May and then Leitrim on the 19th. I’ve never seen the camp so into it.”
With Leitrim having conceded several of their league fixtures, there’s a question mark over how that will pan out. But McLoone insists that Roscommon’s focus is all on themselves.
“Ourselves, Sligo and Leitrim would have always been so competitive against each other. So competitive. It would always be a point in the difference, a point here, a point there. Always the same.
“Intermediate is a very competitive championship, it really is. And even league as well, Division 3, it’s so competitive.
“We had our goals in line at the start of the year and Connacht was 100% one of them. I’ve been playing for a long time and I still don’t have a Connacht championship, like, I need this Connacht championship that’s it!
“I need to retire on something,” she giggles.
Her business on the field is far from finished just yet though, Connacht title or no Connacht title.
Amanda McLoone was at the launch of the John West National Féile competitions 2018 earlier this week.
This is the third year that John West will sponsor the underage sports tournament which is one of the biggest events of its kind. Throughout their sponsorship of the Féile, a focus for John West has been to encourage children to take part and participate in GAA during school and beyond.
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