McMahon set to repay Rebel chiefs’ faith in final showdown

LAURA MCMAHON hopes for better luck than brother Kevin when she lines out for Cork in Sunday’s TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC final against Mayo in Croke Park.

McMahon broke into the panel at the start of the year and it’s a tribute to her ability that she quickly nailed down a starting place at centre forward.

But quite apart from the faith placed in her by the management, she has the team’s liaison officer Eileen Collins to thank for pestering her to become involved. And brother Kevin, wing forward on the Cork team which lost to Kerry at the weekend, helped inspire her too.

She said: “That was a great motivation for me. Seeing the commitment he had, I knew I would have had to have my head right before I started to do it. I had gone to a few trials before, but things didn’t work out for me.

“Eileen would have reffed a lot of our games below with Rosscarbery. She was kind of the ‘eye’ below in West Cork for a while (for the selectors), so maybe that was it. She was the one who gave me the confidence to go forward — to give it a go. She was the contact and I went for trials in January.’’

Married to top referee Michael Collins, Eileen says that McMahon’s ability was obvious from an early stage.

“I always kept on saying to Laura: ‘You have the talent.’ Any time I refereed a match in West Cork in which she was playing, I used to go over to her and say: ‘Come on Laura, don’t leave me down.’

“Eventually she answered my call and I was delighted. She has had a brilliant first season. All she wanted was a bit of encouragement because she had the talent. I used to say to her, don’t waste it and she listened to me. But, it’s all down to herself, she’s a great girl.’’

Currently studying Arts in UCC, she had no previous involvement with Cork at underage level unlike the majority of the squad. And, she’s the first member of her club side to be involved at senior level.

“The club only started about eight years ago. We’re junior ‘A’ this year. We started when I was under-12 and we’re still gaining momentum. We have graduated to win the junior ‘B’ league and championship, but we are still young. There are some fantastic players coming through. Hopefully in a few years at club level we’ll be far more competitive.’’

With the county she began with substitute roles in the league and playing her first big game against Kerry in the Munster Championship in June.

Understandably, she views Sunday’s final as a daunting challenge, but she takes reassurance from the support she has from the players around her. “If you put the head down at all, they’ll bring it back up. They’re all there to lift you. I’m playing with a brilliant bunch of girls. They are so experienced. They’ve been a team now for a while. They’re really, really sound, every one of them. Our only defeat was against Mayo (in the league semi-final), so you’d be fairly revved up meeting them again. There’ll be no lack of motivation. We can’t wait to get out there and play them!’’