Martha Byrne apologises and laughs into her hands at the top table. The invigilator of the Dublin defence has just won her sixth All-Ireland, lifting her to rarefied air – she and Carla Rowe are the only players to have started all six of Dublin’s final wins since 2017. Yet all she wants to talk about now is the players around her and the way they kept shutting Meath down and made sure they got to the end of this All-Ireland final with a clean sheet.
“I think there’s something really special that we have within the Dublin defensive unit. Like, a lot of us know what the other person is going to do before they probably even know themselves. And when you have the likes of Leah Caffrey, right up until the last minute, shouting at me: ‘Who do you f***ing have?’ Ooops! Sorry!”
Nobody is inclined to take her by the ear for what dear old Bill O’Herlihy used to call an inexactitude. The afterglow of victory, of a moment met, of a plan fulfilled – all of it whips a halo around these Dublin players now, their season made whole. They had 12 points to spare in the end and were never in any trouble.
Most pleasingly from their own point of view, Dublin were every bit as united and fearsome in defence here as Byrne says. They grabbed hold of this All-Ireland with a barrage of scores in the opening 20 minutes. But they saw it out with a defence which, through fair means and foul, gave up only five points from play all day.
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“I think the last game, the semi-final, brought us on a lot,” said co-manager Paul Casey. “We really had to dig deep that day and probably didn’t play the football we wanted to. But I thought they were just superb out there today. At times, their composure on the ball, the scores they got – their conversion rate must have been up around 80 per cent. It was excellent.
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“But I thought defensively – when I talk about defensively, it’s from number 15 back to Abby in goals. They were superb. But even the full back line there, Jess [Tobin], Leah, Niamh Crowley, Niamh Donlon ... to go out and give that performance was superb. But it was all over the pitch. I think everybody played close to their best. To do it on this day of all days is very, very satisfying.”
For Meath the devastation isn’t just the result. It’s as much to do with the fact that after growing into the season and improving with every game, they froze on the one day you can’t afford to. Manager Shane McCormack was at a loss to explain it afterwards. He reached for positives but he sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as the rest of us.
“I’m just gutted for the girls, to be honest. We were always doubted, even at the start of the year before a ball was thrown in, to even get to a quarter-final stage. But we did believe within our circle that we would achieve it.
“Dublin got ahead with the two goals and when any Dublin team get ahead, they’re very hard to claw back. But credit to Dublin today, they’re a super team with multiple All-Stars and All-Ireland medal winners. We had 16 new girls on to the panel from last year and this year. I think nine girls got their first ever senior start in an All-Ireland final today, so there are a lot of positives.”
But it was Dublin’s day. The biggest ovation of the afternoon came five minutes from the end when Hannah Tyrrell hobbled off, her final game in a Dublin jersey coming to a premature end with what looked like a nasty enough knee injury. The stretcher came on for her but she seemed determined not to go out like that.
“She seemed to have done something to the knee which hopefully it’s not a cruciate,” Casey said. “She’s hobbling around there but I’d say it could be a week or so before she’ll get to the bottom of that one. I thought she was fantastic. If she is injured it’s a shame, but I think you saw with the ovation she got coming off the pitch. It was very fitting for her, albeit she would have wanted it in different circumstances. Hopefully she’ll be all right.
“I really, really hope she enjoys this because she’s worked so hard for it. She’s given everything at the age she is and all she has achieved. I think this is a cherry on the top.”
For all of them.
