Dublin focus on football pays dividends

THEY did some soul-searching in Dublin last year after losing the All-Ireland semi-final.

They had to. As their skipper Martina Farrell contends, they have been there or thereabouts in recent years, but never able to make the final step. Teams like Laois and Mayo were always that bit sharper.

They scratched their heads and came up with the solution. There were too many distractions. Too many girls were playing other sports. In 2003, it was just about football. No soccer. No basketball. No hockey. Just football. If they want to compete with the very best, they had to act like the very best. Other sports didn’t come into the equation. Most of the Dublin team didn’t mind. For one, it took quite a bit of adjustment.

“It took me a while,” multi-talented Angie McNally admits. “It was hard for me at first, because I am used to playing a couple of different sports at the same time. To focus on just one sport took some getting used to. But, all the other girls had to do the same.

“After the semi-final last year, we had to look at how much better we had to be, how we could make ourselves better. And that was the obvious solution. So many of the girls were playing other sports, hockey, basketball, soccer. We just decided to concentrate on football if we wanted to take it another step further and it has obviously paid off. We are where we wanted to be.”

It has certainly paid off for McNally. She was the star as Dublin powered their way past Kerry in the semi-finals. Not bad for someone who only took up the game eight years ago. Her sisters were going down to a training session in Ballinteer and asked Angie to come along. Eight years later, she could be the difference between Dublin winning and losing the All-Ireland final tomorrow.

Of course, her sporting prowess was evident long before she started kicking ball for Dublin. McNally first became famous, of sorts, as a basketball player, a discipline she feels now helps her in her midfield calling for the Dubs. She spent four years in Long Valley University in America on a basketball scholarship.

“Yeah, I was very lucky with that. We were training six days a week, and it was the closest I ever came to being a professional athlete. We were playing in division one in colleges basketball, so it was a very high standard.”

Unfortunately, McNally didn’t quite make the cut. And after staying in New York for a few years, she came back home to the West Coast Meteors and discovered a previous unrealised ability in soccer. She would go on to become a regular Irish international as a midfield general before her devotion to the Dubs resulted in premature retirement at the end of last season.

While the most telling factor in tomorrow’s game may be the experience of the Mayo players, Angie McNally won’t be one of the Dubs suffering from that. She has been involved in big sporting occasions on both sides of the Atlantic, although she does admit stepping out in front of the Croker crowd will be new to her.

“Well, I am used to big occasions but I will never have played in front of a crowd like it before. I think it is probably the biggest crowd anyone has played in front of.

“The occasion will be a factor, given that it is All-Ireland day. Croke Park is the same as any other park, and once the ball is thrown in, hopefully we will be able to block out the crowd and not let it distract us.”