RETIRED CORK DUAL star Rena Buckley was tempted to make a return to the inter-county scene this year.
Her friend and lifelong team-mate Briege Corkery had decided to commit to Cork camogie after rejoining the panel ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final last year, and Buckley briefly felt the urge to go back.
There’s lots of things she misses about the inter-county game; the intense training, the competitive games, and the camaraderie with the players she has soldiered alongside for years.
The desire is always there, but after announcing her inter-county retirement last year, Buckley is content to close that chapter of her life.
It’s someone else’s turn now.
“Look, life moves on and there’s a kind of a time for everything,” she said.
I just thought that it was time for me to give a bit more time back to the club and I’ll do that for a couple of years and I suppose go into administration or coaching.
“It’s everyone’s own decision and I just thought the decision for me would be to stick with the club.
“Sport is great that way, there’s always another match to look forward to.
“There was a championship last year that I wasn’t part of and it was a brilliant championship and there’ll be a championship again this year, it’ll be brilliant and they will be the games that will be watched and talked about and that’s the great thing about sport, it keeps on going, it keeps on giving.”
The Cork ladies footballers have lost a few iconic players of late.
Fellow inter-county stalwart Bríd Stack is the latest to exit the stage after recently confirming her inter-county retirement. Along with Buckley, their departure severs a major link to that special group of players who won 11 All-Irelands with the Rebels.
Various players who contributed to that golden generation of ladies football in Cork have moved on over the years, but Buckley says they often meet up for a night out.
They had one of their reunions earlier this month, which Stack captured in a lovely photo that she published on Twitter.
The caption indicates that a trip to the famous Reardan’s Bar in Cork was on the cards, but Buckley insists she had an early night to prepare for a club game.
“I slipped away before the Reardan’s venture,” Buckley laughs.
“We would meet up once or twice a year. We’ve great friends from it. We’d a brilliant, loyal gang when we were playing and thankfully that has continued.”
Buckley’s role in that decade of success, along with her exploits in camogie, will feature in one of the upcoming Laochra Gael episodes.
Unsurprisingly, the director of the show informed her that there was an “amount of footage” to sift through when putting her episode together.
Her trademark modesty is obvious as she confesses that she can’t recall all of the key moments that led to her 18 Celtic Crosses. It was also strange for her to have other people discuss their memories of her career.
“What really stuck out with me was that I’ve been so bloody lucky that we’ve been involved in so many big games.
You’d always reflect back on games but to reflect back in such a public manner, and have other people speaking about you is a little unusual.
“At the same time, I don’t have a whole pile of photos from all the games and don’t have every game on video so it’s nice just to have a momento from my time with Cork.
Despite leaving the inter-county game behind, Buckley still had a packed schedule last year.
She reached a junior county final with her football club Donoughmore, and just recently contested an All-Ireland senior camogie semi-final with Inniscarra where they bowed out to Wexford side St Martin’s.
The camogie rulebook has generated a lot of discussion recently, particularly in relation to rules about physicality in the game.
Cork forward Amy O’Connor previously told The42 that the game has become “a bit boring to play” while also lamenting that it’s quite “stop-start”.
Buckley has her own suggestions for how to improve the sport.
Personally, I’d like if they took out the handpass goal, I think we shouldn’t be allowed to handpass a goal. I suppose it’s difficult to define a tackle, it’s interpreted differently on big days which is probably the most frustrating thing, it’s not exactly the rulebook.
“On the big day if it’s interpreted differently to a league game in March or April or a championship game in July, that’s hugely frustrating. If you’re prepping to play a certain way, and then on the day it’s penalised, that probably gives players the most frustration.”
There is something of a new order in ladies football, with Dublin now chasing three All-Ireland titles in-a-row this year. It represents a major shift in the sport after the years of heartache they suffered at the hands of Cork in previous deciders.
The sides clashed again in Croke Park last year as Dublin’s superiority propelled them to a five-point victory.
Buckley suspects that Ephie Fitzgerald’s side were perhaps “shown up in a couple of areas” on that occasion but stops short of backing Dublin to collect that third All-Ireland on the bounce.
She might be a supporter now as Cork prepare for a Division 1 clash with Tipperary this weekend, but that Rebel blood still runs deep in Buckley’s veins.
“Dublin seem to be that little bit further down the road than Cork in general. I think we have a little bit of catching up to do but if we get that work done, then without a doubt we can be as good as Dublin and it’s anyone’s game on any given day.
“They’re certainly an outstanding team. Just because they’re favourites to do three-in-a-row doesn’t mean they’ll do three-in-a-row, but you’d have to say that they’re an excellent team and they have every chance of doing that.”
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