It has been quite the year for Aileen Wall, delivering on and off the field for Ballymacarbry.
She captained Ballymac as they claimed an unprecedented 42nd Waterford senior football title at the start of October, raised aloft the trophy and immediately bolted out of Lemybrien towards Clonmel where her sister, Mairéad, was in labour.
Mairéad, a Ballymac stalwart herself, wasn’t due to give birth until later in the month but by the morning of the county final it had become clear there would be no hanging about. And with Mairéad’s husband out of the country having won an all-expenses paid trip to Dubai, Aileen had been promoted to chief assistant in the delivery room.
“I suppose we never thought that she would go three weeks early,” recalls Aileen. “But she rings me on the morning of the county final saying ‘I’m actually in hospital in Clonmel’.”
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And then the county final went to extra-time, with Ballymacarbry eventually battling out a 1-9 to 0-10 victory over Comeragh Rangers.
“I was her back-up birthing partner or whatever you want to call it,” continues Aileen. “So, yeah, I accepted the cup, did my speech, handed the cup off to someone and went to the hospital. Her husband made it home with 15 minutes to spare actually but I wasn’t allowed leave, we were all in it then at that stage!”
Baby Mikey arrived later that night, and he will be in attendance at Croke Park on Saturday to watch Ballymac contest their first All-Ireland senior club football final since 1998.
His auntie will be captain, and his mam will be travelling as part of the squad.
“Mairéad is actually back on the panel now, it’s great she’s involved,” adds Aileen. “And we’d another girl, Sinéad Ryan, who had a baby too, so they’re back on the panel and it’s great for them to be involved with the team. And we need them there as well, they’re big influences.”
Ballymac are the most decorated club in the history of the competition, having won a record 10 All-Ireland senior titles between 1987-98. But they have not even appeared in a final since 1998 and enter Saturday’s decider as outsiders against three-in-a-row chasing Kilkerrin-Clonberne from Galway.
The sides met in an All-Ireland semi-final last year with Kilkerrin-Clonberne running out comprehensive 2-10 to 0-2 winners at Fraher Field, a game in which Ballymac failed to register a single score during the first half.
The shadow of that mauling hangs over Saturday’s final but Wall feels Ballymac are in a different place now in terms of preparation and aspirations. Last year’s Munster success was their first provincial triumph in 20 years. Despite owning the Waterford championship, they had failed to get over the line in Munster so that in itself was almost enough to satisfy the group in 2022.
“I suppose we set out to win Munster last year and that involved kind of peaking a bit earlier than we probably wanted to,” recalls Aileen.
“We knew Waterford were playing the Cork champions in the Munster quarter-final so if we were going to win Munster it was going to be up against Mourneabbey and I suppose that is when we needed to peak really to get our best game, because we hadn’t beaten them ever.
“Our timelines were a bit different last year, we had to peak earlier and I suppose it was a bit of a downward spiral after that, even in the Munster final last year because, despite winning it, it wasn’t one of our best games.
“We got over it thankfully and we were Munster champions but it wasn’t one of our best games and unfortunately when we got to the semi-final we were a bit spent and we didn’t have much in the tank after that.
“Look, it was dismal but Kilkerrin-Clonberne were able to plan a bit differently, they had All-Ireland final on their mind.
“We are in a very different position now, we have a very different team, four of our girls from last year aren’t with us this year between babies and travelling and all that. In terms of us, it’s parked. It isn’t going to be mentioned and hasn’t been mentioned since.”
Wall, 30, has won an astonishing 17 county senior medals with Ballymac and two Munster club titles. And at intercounty level she scored 2-2 in the 2015 All-Ireland intermediate final as Waterford beat Kildare to claim glory at that grade eight years ago.
But she would trade the lot to walk up the steps of the Hogan Stand on Saturday.
“I’d probably give up every medal I could to win an All-Ireland with Ballymac,” says the primary schoolteacher.
“I just think it would be the pinnacle of any player’s career to be in Croke Park and win a cup and say you were the best club in Ireland that year – it would be amazing. I can’t even fathom what it would mean. It would just be amazing.”
A fitting coda to an amazing year.
Currentaccount.ie LGFA All-Ireland Club finals
Saturday
All-Ireland Intermediate Final: Ballinamore Sean O’Heslin’s (Leitrim) v Glanmire (Cork); Croke Park, 3pm (Live on TG4)
All-Ireland Senior Final: Kilkerrin-Clonberne (Galway) v Ballymacarbry (Waterford); Croke Park, 5pm (Live on TG4)
Sunday
All-Ireland Junior final: Claremorris (Mayo) v O’Donovan Rossa (Cork); Parnell Park, 2pm
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