Nov 23,2024
Now is their winter of content.
For most teams in Gaelic games, November is a chance to recharge the batteries, both mental and physical.
But for those beaten in finals, it can feel like an age.
This time last year, Kerry were still trying to come to terms with a second successive All-Ireland Ladies SFC final defeat.
But, following a comprehensive victory over Galway in August, the cup named in honour of the recently departed Brendan Martin will winter in the Kingdom for the first time in 31 years - much to the relief of player of the match Kayleigh Cronin and her team-mates.
"Thanks be to God, we came together last year and went for one more, and got over the line.
"Third time around, there had to be questions in the back of your mind - there certainly were in mine. Just wondering 'Christ, are we going to fall apart again?' We did an awful lot of work with our sports psychologist leading up to it, and also approached the game differently then we had the two previous years.
"That really, really helped getting up for it, because we just treated it like any other game. In previous years, we probably would have got a small bit too emotional, so that was huge for me. I woke up the morning of the game fresh as, I was just ready for another game. We left all the emotion out of it until after.
"I think we definitely do appreciate it more. We know how hard it is to get there in the first place, never mind to get over the line."
"I was kind of like 'what am I at doing athletics here?'"
Cronin is a self-described "late bloomer", having only made the switch to inter-county Gaelic football from discus throwing as a 23-year-old in 2019.
"I was doing athletics all through my teenage years and the only reason I actually went back playing football was because I had a shoulder injury that stopped me doing athletics for the summer," she explains.
"So I went back to the local club, and just started kicking around with the the girls there, and from then never looked back. I was kind of like 'what am I at doing athletics here?'.
"So I went back to the football and then the following summer, which was 2019, I was called into Kerry. I'm not there too long but have loved every minute of it so far."
Unfortunately, her return was quickly halted by a cruciate ligament injury.
"I started with Kerry in December of 2018 for the 2019 season. We played Westmeath in Fitzgerald Stadium and I'd only been back playing football six months. My body wasn't used to it, obviously.
"It was non-contact in the middle of the park, I just went to turn and went down like a sack of spuds. I knew straight away what it was.
"Obviously, at the time I thought the world was ending. But looking back, if there was a time for it to happen, it was probably the best time for it to happen. It happened in July, and then I had the operation in September, I think. Covid was the next January, February.
"So there were games still going ahead and everything, but we actually ended up going into lockdown. I was basically doing water [maor uisce] and I was hoping to come back around the May mark, which would have just barely been the nine months. And I was testing well in May and everything.
"But I know for a fact if I had gone back in May or June I would have been no use to nobody and, realistically, probably the re-injury rate would have been very high.
"I didn't end up going back until a year later, which would have been October, and going into training was a different story. I actually didn't feel right in the leg for about a year and a half."
Cronin earned her second All-Star last week for her performances at full-back. Kerry conceded just one goal in their five All-Ireland stage championship games but it is a measure of their focus on defence that she is still irked by that Donegal major in June.
"That was a disaster of a goal. It snuck in top corner, just over [Ciara] Butler's hand. But yeah, it's something that we spoke about as a defensive group, that we take real pride in, is limiting scoring opportunity as we possibly can.
"That starts in training by preparing our forwards for the types of backs they're going to meet across games and trying to make training as competitive as we possibly can.
"A goal can give a team a lift fairly quickly and then ladies football is notorious for swinging; three, four, five, six points in ladies football is absolutely nothing.
"So it was super important that when we did get that bit of a lead going in the final that we really kept it nice and tight at the back, to make sure that we didn't give them any bit of a glimmer of hope to come back into the game."
Kerry will have to defend their title without joint managers Darragh Long and Declan Quill, who stepped down after ending the drought in their sixth year in charge. Tralee man Mark Bourke has been tipped to take over.
Cronin paid tribute to the departing duo, who also secured a first league crown since 1991 last year.
"The lads set their goal out fairly lively when they started," she recalls. "There was only thing on their mind, and that was an All-Ireland.
"We were actually in a relegation game for senior, we were below in Division 2, and not doing well either. We could have easily been Division 2 and intermediate, which would have been unthinkable for a Kerry football team.
"So, the turnaround was massive and the buy in was huge from the players. We knew it wouldn't happen straightaway, but we knew if we stuck together and stuck with the lads that it would definitely be a possibility."
