KERRY LADIES STAR Anna Galvin says her side never considered that victory over back-to-back All-Ireland champions Meath was certain until the sound of the final whistle at Austin Stack Park on Saturday evening.
In what was a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final, the hosts exacted revenge in biblical rain to book their place in the semi-finals. First-half goals from Síofra O’Shea and Niamh Carmody provided the platform to build their victory on as they built up a 10-point lead at half-time.
Meath naturally stormed into the contest after the restart with the wind assisting them, but the Royals could only manage to shave six points off the difference before the full-time whistle as they bowed out by 2-8 to 0-10.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” beams Galvin.
“We didn’t think for any moment that we had it. We knew there was going to be a big kick in them.
“The amount of people there was incredible on a miserable night. We were overwhelmed with that. The following all through this year has been building and building. And then the fact we were able to get a home quarter-final was class for people who mightn’t be able to travel to games far away. The crowd were immense and so important in the end stages of the game. When Meath were attacking, we were under a lot of pressure and they were chanting. It made some difference.
“There were times when I looked around and couldn’t see any of my teammates, there was just people everywhere. There was lots of jersey signing and all sorts.”
On the subject of jerseys, there was some confusion online regarding the kit that the Kerry ladies were wearing. Images were posted of the jerseys from the game, showing that players were wearing the strip which featured in last year’s All-Ireland final. Some suggested it was a motivational strategy to upset their Meath opponents. Galvin explains however, that that was not the case.
“So we had a gold set of jerseys that don’t have that [All-Ireland final description] on them. We just had the All-Ireland set at half-time because we were absolutely drenched, so we had the second set there. I know there’s been a bit of a narrative on Twitter that we were using it for motivation but that might have been a bit of a risky move for management if that was the case. No, it was very much to manage the weather conditions.”
After capturing the Division 1 title earlier this year, Kerry lost out to Cork in the Munster final. They recovered the group stages however, picking up crucial wins against Dublin and Cavan to set-up another duel with Meath.
“We were so excited,” Galvin explains when asked for Kerry’s reaction to being paired with Meath in the quarter-finals. The defending champions have been through a turbulent period lately when they were left without a manager after the shock departure of Davy Nelson. Under Nelson, Meath won just one of their seven Division 1 league games this spring and lost the Leinster final to Dublin by six points recently. Jenny Rispin came in to take over the role.
But Meath are still the Brendan Martin Cup holders, who hurt Kerry badly in last year’s All-Ireland decider.
“It’s great to be able to play that has knocked you out,” Galvin continues, “who you’ve had such battles with over the years. Between the league final and the All-Ireland final, we obviously wanted to prove that we could beat Meath, and perform better than we had in those other games. We definitely felt we hadn’t done ourselves justice previously. Credit to Meath, they were unbelievable those few times. We just felt like we could do better against them.”
Ladies football and camogie squads around the country have been carrying out a series of protests throughout the championship to demonstrate their frustrations with the LGFA and Camogie Association regarding player welfare and minimum standards. Galvin says that it’s possible that the protests are encouraging more people to attend the matches but hopes that their efforts will ultimately lead to effective change for players.
“The protests have been great in terms of raising awareness. I think it’s been massive and I think people are aware of the discrepancies but the discrepancies get talked about and then it goes away and fades away. So, the protests have maintained the promotion of it. It helps with the support as well because people are coming out to say they’re behind us as well. We don’t want this to fade away again and this is our way of saying, ‘enough is enough. We need actual action.’”
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