[dropcap]D[/dropcap]CU Ladies GAA were well represented during the Ladies Football Finals at Croke Park.
Dublin Ladies defeated Cork 3-11 to 1-12 to claim back-to-back All-Ireland titles for the first time with a total of fourteen students and alumni part of the Dublin team.
Deirdre Murphy, Lyndsey Davey, Muireann Ni Scanaill, Sinead Finnegan, Kate Fitzgibbon, Siobhan Woods, Laura McGinley, Leah Caffrey, Lauren Magee, Katie Murray and Eabha Rutledge were all part of the squad.
Three further DCU alumni, Ken Robinson, Ryan O’Flaherty and Paul Casey are part of the Dublin management team.
Davey, Caffrey and Magee have all received nominations for this year’s Ladies Football All Star list.
“Usually if you win your province you’d go straight through to an All Ireland Quarter Final and if that was the case this year this would have meant we would have only had one championship game under our belt prior to playing the Quarter Final because Westmeath are the only other Division 1 team in Leinster, so having the group stages meant we had an extra two matches going into the All Ireland stages.” Lauren Magee told The College View.
“Being part of this county panel has really been amazing! Between the players and the background team it’s like having another family. Everyone gives 100% for the team and it’s just a pleasure to be part of.”
Magee, who just finished her degree, played with Dublin and her club Kilmacud Crokes during her time in DCU but praised the support of her managers and the GAA society in DCU.
“It was tough but to be fair to the management of all teams they understand the commitments you have for the other teams and try to accommodate as best as they can for you. The most challenging part for me was trying to balance my college work, working part time and then playing football on top of it all but I’m very lucky to have the support of all my managers and from the GAA society in DCU who have been a huge help when it comes to exams and assignments which took the pressure off me so I could still train and play matches,” Magee said.
After three years with DCU, the O’Connor Cup win over UL in March, their first since 2011, was the highlight of her college football career.
“I have had a great 3 years playing for DCU. We won the League at the end of 2015 which was such a good start to college football. Winning the O’Connor cup was definitely the highlight of my college football, it was the best end to college football I could have asked for and to win it along side the players and management I did made it even more special.”
With DCU Ladies GAA having such strong representation in the Dublin team, and a number of players also being involved in the Meath and Louth panels on All-Ireland Final day, Magee praised DCU’s high standard.
“Well I believe that DCU have a great setup for players and it really helps to develop players further as when they aren’t training with their county teams they are still playing and training at such a high level and also being managed with a high standard too! As I said above you get to play alongside top quality players you don’t usually play with which is always a huge benefit for all players involved.”
Gerard Grimes
Image Credit: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.