*Niamh Mulqueen (far right) with Rebecca Crowe, Anne-Marie McGann and Sinead O’Keeffe. Photograph: John Mangan
MOMENTS can turn a game on its head and for Clare midfielder Niamh Mulqueen, it was the thirty second swing in the opening half when a Tipperary goal was prevented and it ended up kick starting a move that resulted in the Banner raiding for a green flag of their own.
Trailing by 1-03 0-00 with sixteen minutes on the clock, corner back Sinead Hogg made a vital block to stop Tipperary from getting a shot on goal, the breaking ball fell to Jennifer Daly who soloed up the field up to eighty yards, the sliotar then fell to Sarah Loughnane who managed to tuck the ball away into the back of the net and from here Clare never looked back.
Niamh reflected, “All it takes one of those thirty seconds to go your way and it turns the belief towards one team, I don’t think if she scored a point that it would have the same oomph, it needed to be the jugular, straight away I was thinking now it’s only a two point game, it was great to get that as our first score to settle the rest of us. In the middle of the field, you’re running around trying to get hooks and cover players, often the ball can miss you and then all of a sudden it’s always in the other team’s half rather than being in ours so thankfully that thirty second made the difference”.
One of the longer-serving members of the panel, Niamh was still in disbelief that they managed to get over the line and win the All-Ireland Premier Junior Championship. “We came up on Saturday night and everyone was really chilled and relaxed, we had a bit of craic, then this morning today is the day, we’ve been waiting for this day forever, we got to go onto Croke Park and yesterday evening have a look at it beforehand but it was just ten times better, we walked off the pitch champions, I can’t believe it”.
It did take time for Clare to settle with Tipperary dominating the early exchanges. This could be attributed with them beginning to get their bearings in Croke Park. “The pitch doesn’t feel as big when you’re on it but you can’t hear anybody, all you can hear is the crowd and people are calling for the ball but you can’t hear them calling because the sound is drowned out and you really have to concentrate. It’s amazing, I can’t believe we got the result because we weren’t in the game at the start, we were very lucky to be level at half time I personally think, I was looking at the score at one stage and the time was showing the first half as being nearly over and I was thinking we needed to reel them in a bit but no we made it!”.
Broadford’s Niamh continued, “It’s funny because when we did the walk this morning on the pitch, it looked like the Davin End kept going back, I think it is because of the way the seats are, it looked like the Hill end was easier to score into, I didn’t score at all so I can’t say which side was easier but we won the middle and we had our savage forwards score when they needed to, Jennifer Daly covering back and our backs who were defending like hell”.
Upping the tackle count and physicality in the middle third was central to Clare beginning to exert their authority on the game. “One thing that we always target is our tackles, we had a count that we wanted to hit today and at half time we were around that but we doubled what we had at half time in the second half, that showed and it is probably because we tried so hard and those lines, from the 45m to the 45m that is where the hard tackles were going and if the ball goes inside those lines you’re nearly in trouble, you’re either getting the goal or defending the goal so it is really important the team plough through but I think we did that. Myself and Grace get on really well at midfield, it works well with the half-back and half-forward line then who click together and it is brilliant”.
Meeting her mother Elaine moments after the final whistle was a special moment for Niamh. “She gave me a hug on the way up, I gave her a Clare cowboy hat to wear so that’s where the luck is! Seeing the parents and supporters is amazing, a few kids who came to the media night were there, it’s great to see them, they are only six or seven and great to see them get the belief and hopefully they will become really good camogie players and lift the cup in Croke Park, you don’t get better than and hopefully it will drive them on”.
