It might be a little early to be talking about a changing of the guard because you’d have a notion that both Dublin and Cork will enter the 2023 women’s football Championship in a somewhat determined fashion. ‘We haven’t gone away, you know,’ they’ll be declaring.
But after last weekend’s defeats, when the two counties were knocked out in the quarter-finals, the most oft-quoted stat was that, remarkably, for the first time in precisely two decades the All-Ireland final will feature neither Dublin nor Cork.
Instead, it will be Meath, Donegal, Kerry and Mayo who will be contesting next Saturday’s semi-finals, vindicating the soothsayers who forecast that this year’s championship would be the most competitive ever.
Donegal have never reached a senior All-Ireland final. Kerry were last in one 10 years ago, which was their first final appearance in almost 20 years. Mayo have made it to one since 2008. Meath? They used to be the hunters. Now? “We’re the hunted,” smiles Emma Duggan.
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[ Donegal shock last year’s beaten finalists DublinOpens in new window ]
She pleads guilty to the charge that her county has helped disturb the natural order of things, their stunning victory over Dublin in last year’s final, when they’d been no more than also-rans before then, giving other counties the notion that they too could shake things up.
“If you’d said at the start of the year that these would be the last four teams left in the competition, not having Dublin or Cork there, I think you’d probably have been laughed at,” she says.
“But it’s brilliant to see the other teams coming through and believing they can do it. It sets up a really competitive championship for the next few years, it makes it extremely interesting.”
“No one expected us to get to the point where we are, so I think what we have done has made other counties believe they can do it too. That’s been shown this year, it’s been unbelievably competitive, you really can’t call any game, and that’s exactly the way you want it - it’s great for the progression of the game. It’s the most open championship I’ve ever seen - not just played in, but watched as well.”
Mind you, without Duggan’s late, late intervention in Meath’s quarter-final against Galway in Tullamore last Saturday, when her brilliant point with just 15 seconds to go gave her county victory, the hunted might well have been snared in extra-time.
“I wasn’t that confident, to be honest, it was in the air for a long time, I didn’t know where it was going to go, so when the white flag was raised it was more relief than anything.”
The next day, she was in Croke Park, spotted by eagle-eyed folk in James Crombie’s majestic photo of the crowd watching on as Sean O’Shea prepared to take the free-kick that, ultimately, won the game for Kerry against Dublin. Probably the only face in that crowd who understood the pressure.
“It was incredible experiencing that atmosphere, especially when it was a Dublin and Kerry match, you can’t beat it. Seanie O’Shea’s score was absolutely incredible, it was amazing to be there.”
She’ll be out on the Croke Park pitch, rather than in the stands, come Saturday, Meath playing Donegal after the semi-final between Kerry and Mayo.
Duggan already had respect for Donegal, “they’ve been there or thereabouts for a few years now”, but a tight National League final against them back in April, which Meath won by just the two points, and their six point win over Dublin last weekend, has deepened it.
“They’ve struggled to get over the line against Dublin the last few years, but they’ve done it twice now this year, in the league semi-finals and last weekend. That gives you belief. They’re going to have their tails up, they’ll be full of confidence, as they should be, it’ll be a really interesting battle.”
“But we have to back ourselves as well. We take it one season at a time, but we do want to prove that last season wasn’t a one hit wonder. We want to be a consistent team, like Cork and Dublin have been through the years. But yeah, it’s different from being the hunters, now we’re the hunted.”
