LAURA TREACY STANDS in the middle of Croke Park with a beaming smile. A veteran of a dozen seasons by the conclusion of that 2023 campaign, and the colossus from Killeagh is relishing a return to the big time.
Five years without the O’Duffy Cup is considered an eternity on Leeside but what that period in the relative wilderness has done is increase the appreciation. As a neophyte, Treacy took success for granted. Didn’t really know what it took. Just rocked up, did her thing, while some of the greatest to ever play the game did theirs.
A few years watching Kilkenny and Galway climb the steps of the Hogan Stand served as a reminder that it wasn’t a birthright. So too, of course, does maturity and growing up. You can work hard and still not scale the summit. Many brilliant players have gone their whole careers without knowing that feeling.
So when they do again, Treacy is now a titan, a leader without the armband. She understands the work. The grind of self-improvement.
Standing there in Croke Park, taking it all in, surrounded by some of her closest friends and with family in the stands, having beaten Kilkenny and Galway on the way and then routed Waterford in the final – this is the apogee. The greatest day of them all.
*****
The sensation is very different in August 2025, after a one-point loss to Galway. While you have a better appreciation of the highs as you get older, the defeats hurt more. Time is no longer your friend.
The future feels like forever when you’re 17, as Treacy was in her first season on the panel in 2012, when Wexford beat them to complete a three-in-row.
In all, though she has won six All-Irelands, she has been involved in five final defeats. So she knows the Twin Imposters well.
This is gut-wrenching though. Having had to manage her conditioning the whole year due to a tricky knee injury that did not have a manual for recuperation had made it a testing year. But what gnawed away at her was the feeling that they had not done themselves justice.
Cork players (Treacy is not pictured) after the 2025 All-Ireland final defeat. Bryan Keane / INPHO
Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO
She gives Galway oceans of credit for that. But we all know how the mind works. And while the Rebels died on their backs, like the champions they were, pegging Galway back to level with seconds remaining, despite playing the entire second half with 14 players, the first half cost them.
(These thoughts are of the moment. A perception she has through the game, and since. Six months later, she still hasn’t watched it back. Can’t face it. She will at some point. Maybe.)
The beaming smile is replaced by a glowering frown.
It is Laura Treacy’s last time in the blood and bandage she has served for 14 seasons.
*****
She is at home on her own, and one second the tears are flowing, the next she’s cackling like a witch, a flow of emotions bombarding her.
When the news breaks, many of us are shocked, although there had been some whispers.
For Treacy though, that evening of 10 January, when her retirement from inter-county fare goes public and her phone blows up, the rush of feelings is almost overwhelming.
The decision has been made with a few weeks. Cork manager, Ger Manley knows, some of her long-serving teammates know and there had been those little whispers Varys would certainly have picked up on.
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She will only be 31 in March but her entire adulthood has been spent as a Cork camogie senior.
The warmth of the reaction is one thing. The extent of it another entirely. And so she blubs reading some lovely messages and laughs at plenty memories, and the re-telling of yarns from the inner circle that can never be repeated outside of it.
That best day comes to mind. So too the worst. And plenty others. Good outweighs bad by so much. What days they had.
From getting the call by Paudie Murray, with two years still left as a minor, Briege Corkery, Rena Buckley, Orla Cotter, her clubmate, Angela Walsh and her idol, Gemma O’Connor seeming like giants.
In action against Clare in 2014. Cathal Noonan / INPHO
Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO
Slotting in at corner-back and winning an All-Ireland two years later, then taking up the full-back jersey from Anna Geary while still only 20. And then back out to her natural habitat, but filling the giant void left by O’Connor at six.
She did it her way and what a way it was. Reading the play, getting the flick in, providing forward-friendly deliveries. That was her oeuvre.
It comes as a surprise that she only has four All-Stars, having played in 11 All-Ireland finals. She had to be in contention for Player of the Year on at least a couple of occasions.
But whatever the tale of the tape, as the Centra Camogie League kicks off on 14 February without her, it is with the game in far stronger position than it was, the players catered for better – and she herself has played no small role in that as a player rep with the GPA, who have also helped her transition from nursing to her current studies in sports nutrition – and Cork possessing a squad of players that have benefited from her nous, just as she did from the legends of yore.
The why of the retirement, isn’t straightforward. A combination of factors really. The answer Treacy provides takes in 2023, 2025, life outside the dressing room and the passage of time. But what is interesting is that the idea first dawned as she soaked in the joy of that ‘23 triumph.
“When we won the All-Ireland in 2023, I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t think you can get any better than this,’” Treacy explains.
“There was five years, obviously, without anything, we’d worked so hard. I felt that I had worked extremely hard, I’d gone away and done a lot of strength and conditioning myself, which only for the GPA over the last few years, has all become a minimum standard within camogie. But it wasn’t there then to the degree it is now.
“And then bringing those younger girls through, like Laura Hayes and Saoirse McCarthy, guiding them through those years, and trying to get the best out of them, as best as I knew.
“So ‘23 was probably the first thought that I had being like, ‘Have I actually just done all I can now?’ And I suppose there’s life outside camogie, a few things going on, it could have been a chance to just hang up the boots.”
Celebrating 2015 glory with Ashling Thompson. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
The draw of another All-Ireland brought her back, and she got over a hamstring injury that proved far from straightforward to do just that.
Another stocktake then and the lure of a three-in-a-row undoubtedly trumped any doubts. But it was more than that.
“I always said, it would be really hard to be around Cork without playing for Cork.”
But it feels right now, though she has no idea what it will be like the first time she goes to watch. Or if she will be able even. But it is something she will have to find out.
“I have honestly achieved way more than I ever expected to achieve. The decision was really hard, but because of different factors, I suppose I just felt like it was the right time to start a new chapter.”
Being able to consider a holiday in the summer with Ronan, her boyfriend, is one of the first things to look forward to. He has been a huge support, but it is her parents, Mattie and Tricia, that have been the constant.
Mattie was an excellent championship-winning club hurler with Killeagh, who got involved with underage camogie when Laura and her younger sister Emma began playing. Tricia has held almost every position in the club including chairperson.
“They were just those parents who were at everything from school games up. They were heavily involved in underage camogie, they were always involved in our teams. They’d be everywhere at every game. They’d never miss one. So it’ll be a huge transition for them as well, but we’ll make a day out of it going to a game now.
“But that’s a massive thing in general when it comes to wondering why girls don’t continue in sport. You need the backing of parents. You’ll see parents that have no problem bringing the lads to training and games but might not for the girls. We were brought to everything, had the support network to even go out for a puck, to be brought to all the trials and games. Nothing is possible without that.”
An extension of that is the calibre of role models Treacy and her peers have been for young girls now, offering a healthier perspective of body image to what the algorithms are feeding them. Strength and femininity can and do go hand in hand.
After winning the 2018 All-Ireland. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
“Social media is so huge and the more that is out there about LGFA, camogie and other sports, women playing the sports, that it is becoming the norm, the better.
“I would think girls looking physically fit is much more attractive to being underweight and it is important to show how healthy it is for girls to be that way. To be physically healthy, to exercise. And the more camogie players are on billboards or on telly or social media, the better in that way.”
Looking back, she thought as she sat on the bench in 2012 that all her dreams had come true.
She reflects on her personal development in that time, as a player and as a person. It is why 2023 meant so much. She was doing all she could do to be as good as she could be. She was a totem.
And there are so many people who facilitated that. Paudie Murray gave her the chance and changed camogie forever tactically, and in raising standards. Treacy feels blessed to have had Kevin Murray and Liam Cronin as coaches, the latter brought in by Matthew Twomey, who was more a caring uncle than a manager. There was a great relationship with Ger Manley too, as coach and then manager.
All the while, the game improved in terms of preparation, athleticism and the rule change around physicality allowed camogie to catch up with the players.
“It’s unrecognisable from when I started in terms of conditioning and sports science and the game itself and that’s great. I would like to see still a little bit more physicality allowed. And the advantage rule really being pushed. I love to see the advantage played in the hurling. And if nothing comes from it, then it’s brought back.
“Let the game flow as much as possible, because that’s how we train. I think camogie is in a really good place, and it can become a stronger sport again with a little few tweaks and more profile.”
Lifting the O'Duffy Cup to Cork supporters in 2024. Bryan Keane / INPHO
Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO
Want an idea of what made Treacy great and a manager’s dream. How she begins to answer the query on her worst day in the jersey – last August’s All-Ireland final defeat – tells the tale.
“I don’t take losing all too well. Yeah, probably my worst critic as well. When I start reflecting on games I’d be looking at myself first. What could I have done? Maybe that’s why I held such high standards of myself. I was always chasing perfection, and never, ever was going to get it… there was no way in hell I was going to ever have the perfect game. I always would have thought that I could have done something else.”
And then there is what she will miss most.
“I think I will miss challenging myself and pushing my boundaries, just as an athlete. I always felt like I was able to be stronger and be better and so I’ll miss, like my own personal journey of maximising my potential as a player.
“And then, yeah, I will miss the Cork set-up. I have some great friends there. Made some unbelievable friendships throughout my whole journey involved a Cork senior panel, and I won’t be a stranger.
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'I was always chasing perfection, and never, ever was going to get it' - Cork's retired titan
LAURA TREACY STANDS in the middle of Croke Park with a beaming smile. A veteran of a dozen seasons by the conclusion of that 2023 campaign, and the colossus from Killeagh is relishing a return to the big time.
Five years without the O’Duffy Cup is considered an eternity on Leeside but what that period in the relative wilderness has done is increase the appreciation. As a neophyte, Treacy took success for granted. Didn’t really know what it took. Just rocked up, did her thing, while some of the greatest to ever play the game did theirs.
A few years watching Kilkenny and Galway climb the steps of the Hogan Stand served as a reminder that it wasn’t a birthright. So too, of course, does maturity and growing up. You can work hard and still not scale the summit. Many brilliant players have gone their whole careers without knowing that feeling.
So when they do again, Treacy is now a titan, a leader without the armband. She understands the work. The grind of self-improvement.
Standing there in Croke Park, taking it all in, surrounded by some of her closest friends and with family in the stands, having beaten Kilkenny and Galway on the way and then routed Waterford in the final – this is the apogee. The greatest day of them all.
*****
The sensation is very different in August 2025, after a one-point loss to Galway. While you have a better appreciation of the highs as you get older, the defeats hurt more. Time is no longer your friend.
The future feels like forever when you’re 17, as Treacy was in her first season on the panel in 2012, when Wexford beat them to complete a three-in-row.
In all, though she has won six All-Irelands, she has been involved in five final defeats. So she knows the Twin Imposters well.
This is gut-wrenching though. Having had to manage her conditioning the whole year due to a tricky knee injury that did not have a manual for recuperation had made it a testing year. But what gnawed away at her was the feeling that they had not done themselves justice.
She gives Galway oceans of credit for that. But we all know how the mind works. And while the Rebels died on their backs, like the champions they were, pegging Galway back to level with seconds remaining, despite playing the entire second half with 14 players, the first half cost them.
(These thoughts are of the moment. A perception she has through the game, and since. Six months later, she still hasn’t watched it back. Can’t face it. She will at some point. Maybe.)
The beaming smile is replaced by a glowering frown.
It is Laura Treacy’s last time in the blood and bandage she has served for 14 seasons.
*****
She is at home on her own, and one second the tears are flowing, the next she’s cackling like a witch, a flow of emotions bombarding her.
When the news breaks, many of us are shocked, although there had been some whispers.
For Treacy though, that evening of 10 January, when her retirement from inter-county fare goes public and her phone blows up, the rush of feelings is almost overwhelming.
The decision has been made with a few weeks. Cork manager, Ger Manley knows, some of her long-serving teammates know and there had been those little whispers Varys would certainly have picked up on.
She will only be 31 in March but her entire adulthood has been spent as a Cork camogie senior.
The warmth of the reaction is one thing. The extent of it another entirely. And so she blubs reading some lovely messages and laughs at plenty memories, and the re-telling of yarns from the inner circle that can never be repeated outside of it.
That best day comes to mind. So too the worst. And plenty others. Good outweighs bad by so much. What days they had.
From getting the call by Paudie Murray, with two years still left as a minor, Briege Corkery, Rena Buckley, Orla Cotter, her clubmate, Angela Walsh and her idol, Gemma O’Connor seeming like giants.
Slotting in at corner-back and winning an All-Ireland two years later, then taking up the full-back jersey from Anna Geary while still only 20. And then back out to her natural habitat, but filling the giant void left by O’Connor at six.
She did it her way and what a way it was. Reading the play, getting the flick in, providing forward-friendly deliveries. That was her oeuvre.
It comes as a surprise that she only has four All-Stars, having played in 11 All-Ireland finals. She had to be in contention for Player of the Year on at least a couple of occasions.
But whatever the tale of the tape, as the Centra Camogie League kicks off on 14 February without her, it is with the game in far stronger position than it was, the players catered for better – and she herself has played no small role in that as a player rep with the GPA, who have also helped her transition from nursing to her current studies in sports nutrition – and Cork possessing a squad of players that have benefited from her nous, just as she did from the legends of yore.
The why of the retirement, isn’t straightforward. A combination of factors really. The answer Treacy provides takes in 2023, 2025, life outside the dressing room and the passage of time. But what is interesting is that the idea first dawned as she soaked in the joy of that ‘23 triumph.
“When we won the All-Ireland in 2023, I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t think you can get any better than this,’” Treacy explains.
“There was five years, obviously, without anything, we’d worked so hard. I felt that I had worked extremely hard, I’d gone away and done a lot of strength and conditioning myself, which only for the GPA over the last few years, has all become a minimum standard within camogie. But it wasn’t there then to the degree it is now.
“And then bringing those younger girls through, like Laura Hayes and Saoirse McCarthy, guiding them through those years, and trying to get the best out of them, as best as I knew.
“So ‘23 was probably the first thought that I had being like, ‘Have I actually just done all I can now?’ And I suppose there’s life outside camogie, a few things going on, it could have been a chance to just hang up the boots.”
The draw of another All-Ireland brought her back, and she got over a hamstring injury that proved far from straightforward to do just that.
Another stocktake then and the lure of a three-in-a-row undoubtedly trumped any doubts. But it was more than that.
“I always said, it would be really hard to be around Cork without playing for Cork.”
But it feels right now, though she has no idea what it will be like the first time she goes to watch. Or if she will be able even. But it is something she will have to find out.
“I have honestly achieved way more than I ever expected to achieve. The decision was really hard, but because of different factors, I suppose I just felt like it was the right time to start a new chapter.”
Being able to consider a holiday in the summer with Ronan, her boyfriend, is one of the first things to look forward to. He has been a huge support, but it is her parents, Mattie and Tricia, that have been the constant.
Mattie was an excellent championship-winning club hurler with Killeagh, who got involved with underage camogie when Laura and her younger sister Emma began playing. Tricia has held almost every position in the club including chairperson.
“They were just those parents who were at everything from school games up. They were heavily involved in underage camogie, they were always involved in our teams. They’d be everywhere at every game. They’d never miss one. So it’ll be a huge transition for them as well, but we’ll make a day out of it going to a game now.
“But that’s a massive thing in general when it comes to wondering why girls don’t continue in sport. You need the backing of parents. You’ll see parents that have no problem bringing the lads to training and games but might not for the girls. We were brought to everything, had the support network to even go out for a puck, to be brought to all the trials and games. Nothing is possible without that.”
An extension of that is the calibre of role models Treacy and her peers have been for young girls now, offering a healthier perspective of body image to what the algorithms are feeding them. Strength and femininity can and do go hand in hand.
“Social media is so huge and the more that is out there about LGFA, camogie and other sports, women playing the sports, that it is becoming the norm, the better.
“I would think girls looking physically fit is much more attractive to being underweight and it is important to show how healthy it is for girls to be that way. To be physically healthy, to exercise. And the more camogie players are on billboards or on telly or social media, the better in that way.”
Looking back, she thought as she sat on the bench in 2012 that all her dreams had come true.
She reflects on her personal development in that time, as a player and as a person. It is why 2023 meant so much. She was doing all she could do to be as good as she could be. She was a totem.
And there are so many people who facilitated that. Paudie Murray gave her the chance and changed camogie forever tactically, and in raising standards. Treacy feels blessed to have had Kevin Murray and Liam Cronin as coaches, the latter brought in by Matthew Twomey, who was more a caring uncle than a manager. There was a great relationship with Ger Manley too, as coach and then manager.
All the while, the game improved in terms of preparation, athleticism and the rule change around physicality allowed camogie to catch up with the players.
“It’s unrecognisable from when I started in terms of conditioning and sports science and the game itself and that’s great. I would like to see still a little bit more physicality allowed. And the advantage rule really being pushed. I love to see the advantage played in the hurling. And if nothing comes from it, then it’s brought back.
“Let the game flow as much as possible, because that’s how we train. I think camogie is in a really good place, and it can become a stronger sport again with a little few tweaks and more profile.”
Want an idea of what made Treacy great and a manager’s dream. How she begins to answer the query on her worst day in the jersey – last August’s All-Ireland final defeat – tells the tale.
“I don’t take losing all too well. Yeah, probably my worst critic as well. When I start reflecting on games I’d be looking at myself first. What could I have done? Maybe that’s why I held such high standards of myself. I was always chasing perfection, and never, ever was going to get it… there was no way in hell I was going to ever have the perfect game. I always would have thought that I could have done something else.”
And then there is what she will miss most.
“I think I will miss challenging myself and pushing my boundaries, just as an athlete. I always felt like I was able to be stronger and be better and so I’ll miss, like my own personal journey of maximising my potential as a player.
“And then, yeah, I will miss the Cork set-up. I have some great friends there. Made some unbelievable friendships throughout my whole journey involved a Cork senior panel, and I won’t be a stranger.
“I told them all, I won’t be a stranger.”
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Camogie Cork Laura Treacy