LIMERICK STAR CAOIMHE Costelloe has been on the road for quite some time now.
“2013 was my first year involved,” she recalls. “Joe Quaid picked up the phone to my Dad at the time and asked would I have any interest in coming in and I have been there since.
“I have been very lucky, I have avoided injuries and as long as my body allows me to stay playing, I’ll stay playing. I know it is a huge privilege that only a handful of girls get in their lifetime and look I love representing Limerick. I’m first and foremost a Limerick supporter so to have that added privilege of representing Limerick in camogie, I’m delighted to do it and I’ll continue to do it for as long as I can.
“The improvement I see year on year, the quality of the girls playing now has gone through the roof. I think that’s coupled with the fact that we have far more access to facilities now and top-quality coaches. Camogie is only going in one direction and I hope that it continues to go that way because there are some incredible camogie players around this country and the more exposure we get to those girls, the better.”
The sharpshooter and top free-taker is speaking as the PwC GPA Player of the Month for June in camogie, shortly after collecting her award last week.
This Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford in Thurles [3.15pm, RTÉ 2] is to the forefront of her mind, understandably. “What is rare is wonderful don’t they say,” she smiles. “Yeah look, delighted. Just to be in with a chance, being in the last six is great.”
Costelloe and co. have had a rollercoaster of a season to date, the Treaty going until June without a win in the campaign.
A few weeks later, and they’re in relatively uncharted territory.
“There is no doubt that it has been difficult,” she reflects on 2022 as a whole. “We went through the league without a victory and ended up getting relegated, that was hard. I was there in 2013, when we got out of Division 2, so to lose our senior status in the league was difficult, there was no denying that.
“I think we know as a group that there is still plenty quality in Limerick, we have the likes of Rebecca Delee back from injury, she is just such a huge asset for both Limerick camogie and Limerick football. We know we still have quality players and it is just a case of giving our younger players time.”
Defeats to heavyweights Galway and Kilkenny followed in their championship openers, but John Lillis’ side turned the season on its head against Offaly — who sent them down in the league — and continued that winning momentum against Down and Antrim to progress to the knockout stages and exceed all expectations.
“We just knew that if we could get ourselves right, there’s great resilience in our squad. We’ve a lot of young girls who came in this year who hadn’t played at this level before and it took them a couple of games to get used to the pace of it.
“They haven’t looked back at it and they’re young and green and it helps the older ones a little bit because they haven’t been hurt very often. So it’s just about sticking together really. That’s what we try to do and we’re in with a chance now so hopefully things can go our way.”
Adare clubwoman Costelloe will have a big say in that, it’s fair to say.
She’s unquestionably the team’s main scoring outlet, but she’ll play that down.
Along with the pressure that often goes hand-in-hand with it, particularly being the free-taker. She goes ball-by-ball, seeing free-taking and open play two separate things.
“I don’t know if I enjoy it,” she admits, “Do I feel pressure? I don’t think so. Free-taker is a role that you get given and you get trusted to do it. It’s no different to the goalie, in my opinion, or a girl being asked to mark a particular player on the opposition. It’s just what you have to do.
“I have done a lot of work with our team psychologist over the last couple of months and things like that, I have a routine that I trust and I know that if I follow that through whether they go over or not, I have done the same thing.
“I try to just take every free as it comes, I don’t try to overthink it or anything like that and just follow the process that I know works for me. The result then will hopefully take care of itself.”
Limerick supporters will be hoping that’s the case for two big showdowns this weekend, John Kiely’s hurlers on the hunt for three in-a-row as they face Kilkenny in Sunday’s All-Ireland decider.
Costelloe, as always, will be keeping a close eye, the mood on Shannonside on another level. Not that she’ll get weighted down by the noise.
“Our hurlers are incredible and like I said already, we’re Limerick supporters first and foremost,” she concludes. “To see what the lads have done over the last couple of years is phenomenal and I hope that it doesn’t stop any time soon.
“For ourselves, if you asked me at the start of the championship where I think we’d be, a lot of people probably would have laughed at me if I said that we could get to a quarter-final. But look, we’re there now and anything can happen at that stage.
“We’ve only been in the All-Ireland quarter-final once since we came up in ‘19, so it took us a long time to get back there again. We’ll just focus on what we need to do first and then we’ll enjoy the All-Ireland hurling final.”
