It's been an extraordinary year for Vikki Wall. The Dunboyne forward drove Meath – at last – to an intermediate All-Ireland before Christmas after two successive final defeats. Her dazzling goal lit up the win over Westmeath and she went to be named Footballer of the Year at the grade.
Then, in a follow-up interview she detailed the verbal abuse about her weight that she had sustained in her career. Her candour struck a chord. Speaking at Wednesday’s launch of the joint player pathway development for all Gaelic athletes, by all three organisations, she said that reaction to the TG4 interview had taken her aback.
“Yeah definitely. It was not something I gave a huge amount of thought but I said I would bring it up in the interview. I did not expect the reaction it has got so far. I am overwhelmed by it but I also think it has been really encouraging in the fact that a lot of younger girls have reached out to me.
“I did not realise it was such a problem but the fact that these girls have reached out to me with their stories – having that conversation on the topic was not a bad thing.
“I reflect on it and think if I did not have such a love for the game and if I didn’t have that underlying confidence in myself, I do think it could have gone a different way. It probably did affect me more than I would have liked to admit at the time.”
She made her debut in 2015, a year that saw Meath get annihilated by Cork in the championship but gradually the county has rebuilt and after recovering from the All-Ireland intermediate final defeats by Tyrone and Tipperary, completed the comeback last year and this year’s championship in Leinster will pit them against All-Ireland champions Dublin.
“We were delighted to get the win and finally get up to senior. I definitely think it is different; we are not naive in not thinking we have big challenges ahead of us this year and if the provincials go ahead it means we will be in a straight final against Dublin so you could be playing the All-Ireland champions in your first match. We are not naive and we know we have to increase physicality and strength so that in sense preparations will be a bit different.”
Having tried her hand at the AFL women’s combine in Melbourne, would she be interested in joining the now substantial Irish presence in Australia?
“It definitely wouldn’t be something I’d rule out. It was a great experience. I was only there for four days and flew back for a county final, which we lost so that maybe tainted the experience a little bit.
“But it was a really good experience. It was really nice to see the comparison of the professionalism between GAA and AFLW and stuff like that. It just showed me the amount of improvements we’ve made, even on the women’s side of GAA, in the last few years, and how professional our set-ups actually are. So it was really nice.”
