HAD THINGS TURNED out differently, Roisin Phelan mightn’t be lining out for the Rebels this weekend.
Four or five years ago she faced a stark choice after he body began to break down because of over-training. Football was the winner and she hasn’t looked back.
Since breaking into the team as a 19-year-old earlier this year, Phelan will play in her first All-Ireland final as Cork chase a fourth straight title and a ninth in 10 years.
“I played soccer for Cork for two years when I was younger. It came to a choice. When I was about 15 I started to get injured because I was out every night of the week training and it came down to a choice. I had to pick one over the other.
“I don’t know why I chose football but I enjoyed the buzz more, my friends from home were doing it more and that probably swayed me. I wouldn’t have been at the standard now of someone like Lyndsey Davey, I think she used to play for Ireland. I played club soccer in Midleton and was in the Cork set-up as well.
“I think I prefered the whole attitude around Gaelic Games, we saw it with the hurling final. It’s such a different-paced game, I think I preferred the pace and physicality of it compared to soccer.
“Recognising the (Cork) girls off TV was great. Mary O’Connor used to come and train with us sometimes and we’d Angela Walsh and all the girls around.”
The Aghada starlet has been part of the panel for two years now, but forcing her way into such a glittering starting XV was a huge challenge.
“My first time in the Cork senior dressing room was 2012. I was brought up after my minor season, it was mid-season, July, by the time I got there. You never forget that first training session.
“The intensity was something else. You’d have been used to the intensity at underage but not to the same extent. The girls drive themselves on like there’s no tomorrow. The bond between them is unbelievable.
“I was on the starting 30 here last year but didn’t get to play so hopefully I’ll get some of the match, or some of it on the pitch this time.”
There clearly isn’t anywhere else in the world the second year dental student in UCC would rather be on Sunday.
“People talk about the sacrifices we have to make as players but we have to think about how much we gain from it. The friendships, we just love the whole atmosphere of it. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t want to be and people seem to forget that sometimes.
“Who can say this is a sacrifice! I’m going to play in Croke Park this week, who can say they’ve done that! We forget how lucky we are, we can get so involved and enthralled in our own little bubble that we forget that this is an incredible achievement, that we’re in Croke Park, playing in an AI final.”
