Hannah Looney loving challenge of facing mighty Dublin in Croke Park

The dual player is also the proud owner of four All-Ireland camogie medals - and is 60 minutes away from winning her first ladies football title on the pitch

Thu, 17 Dec, 2020 - 06:00

Eoghan Cormican

Hannah Looney has in her possession an All-Ireland ladies football medal. But if she’s being brutally honest, she doesn’t consider the Celtic Cross pocketed in 2016 a personal achievement.

2016 was Looney’s first year with the Cork senior footballers. The then-teenager was used off the bench during the All-Ireland quarter-final and semi-final victories, but failed to make the matchday 30 for the final win over Dublin.

The dual player is also the proud owner of four All-Ireland camogie medals, starting in all bar one of those four All-Ireland final wins. They carry greater weight than her solitary ladies football medal simply because she contributed inside the four white lines of Croke Park on All-Ireland final day, rather than looking in from the margins as was the case in 2016.

“Is that being selfish, maybe it is. But that's just how I feel,” admits Looney.

“I was just riding a wave in 2016. It would be great to be on the field and be part of a win like that. I just really want to be part of it.

Getting Cork back on top is the most important thing. Some brilliant people before us have set amazing standards and that is what we all strive to do, to carry on that legacy.

Cork captain Doireann O’Sullivan said earlier this week they “panicked” when Dublin landed key scores in the 2018 All-Ireland final and 2019 All-Ireland semi-final clashes between the counties, Mick Bohan’s side coming out on top in both games.

Looney, hoping to win her first ladies football medal as a starting member of the Cork set-up this Sunday, echoes O’Sullivan’s sentiment. The midfielder added that “it is almost a blur playing against Dublin” such is their relentless intensity and suffocating style.

“We are evenly matched in terms of skill, but the most disappointing thing was when Dublin got a break, we seemed to throw everything out the window and everyone just seemed to play for themselves, instead of keeping it calm and grinding it out. Hopefully, we have learned.”

Cork’s aforementioned 2016 final win was the last time the county trumped Dublin in a championship fixture. The Aghada clubwoman said Dublin - who have won every All-Ireland since - have not only replaced Cork at the summit of ladies football but taken the game to a new level.

“They've set the standard, and a very high standard it is, and they have probably brought ladies football to another level again.

I love playing Dublin, to be honest. What better way to test yourself than playing the three-time All-Ireland champions. We want to be up against the best and we want to be beating them.

There’s a lovely image of Looney after the final whistle had sounded in Cork’s semi-final win over Galway earlier this month. Both fists are raised and clinched, and a smile yawning from ear to ear.

Eight days previous, the 23-year-old chemical engineer was part of a Cork camogie team which came up a point short to Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final. She couldn’t countenance a fourth consecutive All-Ireland semi-final defeat between the two codes.

“It just meant so much to me and the team to be back in an All-Ireland final. There was a sense of relief more than anything for me, especially after coming off the loss the weekend before. At the start of that week, I had almost a fear of losing.

“You didn't want another year where we didn't get to a final. I was very lucky coming into these Cork squads who had won so much and just jumping on that bandwagon. It was all I ever knew in one sense.

"There was a lot of transition, a lot of change, and a lot of good teams coming up to the mark. You figure out it is not that easy, it doesn't come that often, you have got to work for it and you have to cherish it when it comes around.

“Obviously, it is not good enough to just get to a final, we want to win it.”