SPORTSWOMAN OF THE MONTH:FOURTEEN WOMEN from 12 different sporting disciplines complete our list of candidates for the 2010 Sportswoman of the Year award, the winner of which will be announced in Dublin on Friday week. And, without a shadow of a doubt, in what has been a remarkable year for Irish women in sport, the list boasts the most impressive collection of achievements since the awards began in 2004.
Because the overall ceremony has been moved from January to December, largely to facilitate our monthly winners, many of whom are away competing or enduring warm-weather training in January, our year ends with the November award.
And it is the captains of this year’s All-Ireland winning Gaelic football and camogie teams, Dublin’s Denise Masterson and Wexford’s Una Leacy, who complete our list.
Katie Taylor’s world title-winning exploits in September delayed the inclusion of the pair, but we took their All Star awards in November as our opportunity to acknowledge their achievements, both as individuals and as representatives of their teams.
Having already lost in the 2003 and 2004 All-Ireland finals, Dublin’s one-point defeat to Cork last year, having led by two points with less than 10 minutes to go, might have been the cue for the bulk of the team – among them stalwarts like Masterson, Lyndsey Davey, Sinéad Aherne, Mary Nevin, Lyndsey Peat and Cliodhna O’Connor – to find a less painful way of passing their weekends.
And when they suffered relegation from Division One of the National League earlier this year, the signs were hardly there that 2010 would be the year they would finally win the All-Ireland senior title.
But win it they did, their 3-16 to 0-9 victory over Tyrone, Aherne contributing 2-7 of their tally, reward for a team Masterson insisted knew all along it was far from finished. Her own contribution that day was immense, both as captain and as her team’s driving force in midfield.
In contrast, Wexford’s form throughout 2010 indicated that a second All-Ireland title in four years was on the cards, the team retaining their National League title by beating Kilkenny back in April.
They completed the double with a two-point defeat of Galway, a triumph that also produced a Leacy double. Back in 2009, when the county won its first senior All-Ireland title in 32 years, it was captain Mary Leacy who raised the trophy. She held off the challenge of her sister, Una, who scored two first-half goals that day, to win our monthly award, both of them, incidentally, coming by their talent honestly – their mother Margaret (nee O’Leary) is a three-times All-Ireland winner who was included in the camogie team of the century. It wasn’t from the bushes . . .
Una, then, succeeds her sister as one of our monthly award winners and, a touch more importantly, as an All-Ireland winning captain. Her display in the Wexford attack against Galway, and her leadership of her team, was no less impressive than Masterson’s contribution to Dublin’s success against Tyrone, making the pair inseparable when it came to deciding on the award.
They complete a 2010 list, then, that is, quite simply, the best we’ve ever had. Spare a thought for the judges who have to choose between them for the overall award.
The 2010 Monthly Winners – January: Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin (Bobsleigh); February: Jessica Kurten (Equestrian); March: Katie Walsh (Horse racing); April: Dora Gorman (Soccer); May: Valerie Mulcahy (Gaelic football); June: Danielle McVeigh (Golf); July: Derval O'Rourke (Athletics); August: Gráinne Murphy (Swimming) and Madeline Perry (Squash); September: Katie Taylor (Boxing); October: Ciara Mageean (Athletics); November: Denise Masterson (Gaelic football) and Una Leacy (Camogie).
